A Minnesota Senate committee narrowly approved a public subsidy on Friday to help the Vikings build a new football stadium. The development revives the team's struggling effort just hours after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell visited the Capitol to jump-start what had been a stalled stadium debate. The Senate's Local Government and Elections Committee passed the bill on an 8-6 vote after a hearing that stretched nearly four hours. While the stadium bill still faces a long haul in the waning days of Minnesota's legislative session, the committee's vote gave the $975 million stadium proposal new life four days after a companion bill's defeat in a House committee sparked near panic among supporters.

A Miami attorney who represented O.J. Simpson in the Nevada trial that ended with Simpson's armed robbery and kidnapping conviction has accused three lawyers of slander for a lawsuit and comments alleging Simpson's attorney failed to pay promised fees to his co-counsel, according to an ESPN.com report on Thursday.

The Vikings were dealt a blow on Tuesday as they continue to search for a new stadium deal. Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton said that resolving the stadium issue, which has lingered for about a decade, would probably have to wait until 2013. "We can't not do a new stadium and have the Vikings remain here very long," Dayton said. A state House committee voted 9-6 to reject the $975 million plan to build a replacement for the Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis. "Sometimes the difficult takes a while, the impossible takes a little longer," Dayton said.

Former Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino and Jessica Dorrell exchanged more than 4,300 text messages and nearly 300 phone calls over the past seven months, on game days, before dawn and even as the police report that hastened his downfall was being released to the public, according to a review of his business cellphone records by The Associated Press.

Former Lions wide receiver Charles Rogers has been arraigned on five misdemeanors from two unrelated incidents. Rogers, 30, appeared before Saginaw County District Judge A.T. Frank on Thursday and pleaded not guilty to the charges. Frank released Rogers on a $7,500 personal recognizance bond.

Warren Sapp owes more than $6.7 million to creditors and back child support and alimony, according to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing in South Florida. Sapp's $6.45 million in assets includes 240 pairs of Jordan athletic shoes worth almost $6,500; a $2,250 watch; and a lion skin rug worth $1,200.

Arkansas put football coach Bobby Petrino on paid leave Thursday after he failed to disclose he had been riding with a female employee half his age when his motorcycle skidded off the road over the weekend. Petrino apologized and said he had been concerned about protecting his family and keeping an "inappropriate relationship from becoming public." "I will fully cooperate with the university throughout this process and my hope is to repair my relationships with my family, my athletic director, the Razorback Nation and remain the head coach of the Razorbacks," he said in a statement issued by the university.

Former Bengals receiver Jerome Simpson was sentenced Thursday to 15 days in jail and three years' probation on a drug-related charge. A judge in Covington reduced the jail time from the 60 days recommended by prosecutors in their plea agreement with Simpson, now an unrestricted free agent after four seasons with the Bengals.

Saints coach Sean Payton arrived at NFL headquarters Thursday for his suspension appeal before commissioner Roger Goodell in the team's bounty case. Payton appeared several hours after GM Mickey Loomis and assistant coach Joe Vitt entered the league offices for their appeals. Vitt and his lawyer, David Cornwell, met with Goodell for 90 minutes. Cornwell said Vitt understood he had to be held accountable, but they wanted to convey that the coach did not participate in a strategy to injure players. "I thought the commissioner was extremely receptive," Cornwell said.

In another step that could pave the way for the NFL to return to Los Angeles as early as next year, Anschutz Entertainment Group delivered their environmental impact report to City Hall on Thursday for their $1.4B proposed stadium in downtown Los Angeles. AEG president and CEO Tim Leiweke presented the 10,000-page report, which took 18 months to complete at a cost of $27M, at City Hall along with members of construction and trade unions and called it a significant step in bringing the NFL back to Los Angeles for the first time since 1994.