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From The Associated Press

Favre joins Jets after trade from Packers

CLEVELAND—Brett Favre held up his new green jersey Thursday evening, hoping he made the right decision.

“To a certain degree, I don’t know what I’m getting into,” he said.

Favre’s summertime soap opera ended Wednesday night when the Green Bay Packers traded their iconic quarterback to the New York Jets, who haven’t had a star of No. 4’s stature since the days Joe Namath was slinging passes.

“I’m here for one reason. Not to do commercials, Broadway all those things,” Favre said after joining New York for its exhibition game in Cleveland. “I’m here to help the Jets win.”

It’s not certain when the three-time MVP will be ready to play. But he assured it will be soon.

“I’m a little out of shape, compared to the other guys,” he said.

Five months after a tearful goodbye to a Hall of Fame career, Favre, who won a Super Bowl title and set all sorts of records in 16 seasons before his acrimonious split with the Packers, is now part of a Jets team which went 4-12 last season.

Par is precious in PGA Championship

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich.—Oakland Hills grudgingly gave up low scores in the opening round of the 90th PGA Championship on Thursday.

“The Monster,” as Ben Hogan called the long and difficult course, also refused to let anyone pull away.

Retief Goosen, a player with a game built for difficult layouts, birdied three of the first four holes but bogeys on Nos. 8 and 9 dropped him into a tie for the lead at 2 under midway through his round. Still on the course at 2 under was Jonathan Byrd, who had held the lead by himself until bogeying the 18th, his ninth hole of the day.

Play was suspended at 5:33 p.m. when a storm front rolled into the area and heavy rains pounded the course. The players marked their golf balls and headed for shelter while the galleries looked for a place to wait out the delay.

Robert Karlsson and Jeev Milkha Singh were the clubhouse leaders with 2-under 68s on a breezy and temperate day at the old country club in the suburbs of Detroit.

Among those at 1 under and yet to finish the round were Brian Gay, Michael Allen, Brandt Snedeker, Mark Calcavecchia and Andres Romero.

Already in with 1-under 69s were Sergio Garcia, Billy Mayfair, Ken Duke and Sean O’Hair, another player who had a share of the lead at one time.

USC once again favorite in Pac-10

SAN FRANCISCO—The Pac-10 has long been a conference known for its talented quarterbacks and high-powered offenses.

That’s what makes the uncertainty at quarterback so many teams are facing at the start of fall practice so unsettling to many teams.

Only Arizona State, Arizona and Washington opened fall practice with returning starters at quarterback entrenched in their jobs.

Everyone else is either breaking in a new starter such as Mark Sanchez at Southern California, challenging a former one like the competition between Nate Longshore and Kevin Riley at California, or hoping a young one will take the job like Nate Costa at Oregon.

The Trojans have done well with first-year starters at quarterback in the past under Pete Carroll, winning a share of the national title with Matt Leinart in 2003 and finishing fourth overall in the country with John David Booty in 2006.

The team best positioned to challenge the Trojans this season could be Arizona State because of the experience of Rudy Carpenter at quarterback.

Carpenter has made 31 straight starts for the Sun Devils, throwing 25 touchdown passes last season to help Arizona State tie the Trojans for the regular season title.

Washington coach Tyrone Willingham and Arizona coach Mike Stoops have similar feelings about their own returning starters in Huskies sophomore Jake Locker and Wildcats senior Willie Tuitama.

Morgan Hamm out of Olympics with ankle injury

BEIJING—Morgan Hamm’s eyes were red, his voice shaky.

The bone spurs digging into his left leg made it impossible for him to tumble, and giving up his spot on the U.S. men’s gymnastics team was the right thing to do — the only thing to do. That didn’t make it hurt any less.

Hamm withdrew Thursday, two days before competition begins. He aggravated a chronic injury in his left ankle during training in Beijing, and it never responded to treatment. He clearly struggled on floor exercise during the men’s training session Wednesday, and it wasn’t any better Thursday.

“This has been an extremely hard decision for me to make. I’ve given everything I can to be ready to compete at this Olympic Games,” Hamm said. “It’s best for me to step down and have another athlete fill my position. This is something for me that’s very tough because it’s end of my career, and it’s not the way I had planned it.”

Nothing about these Olympics has gone the way Hamm and his twin brother, Paul, planned it. Not for the Americans, either.

Paul Hamm, the reigning Olympic champion, had to withdraw July 28 because he wasn’t going to be healthy enough to compete in Beijing. Besides persistent pain from the right hand he broke two months ago, he has a strained left rotator cuff.