ARLINGTON, Texas -- Ezekiel Elliott probably has a fine coming from the NFL for jumping into an oversized Salvation Army red kettle to celebrate a short touchdown run in a bounce-back win for the Dallas Cowboys.Owner and general manager Jerry Jones sure hopes so.My dream is that the NFL would fine the daylights out of him, and Im going to take them to the Supreme Court, Jones joked after the Cowboys (12-2) moved closer to home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs with a 26-20 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday night.And were going to get the Salvation Army a lot of notice there.All-time NFL rushing leader and former Dallas star Emmitt Smith sure noticed, laughing and clapping from a suite along with plenty of Elliotts teammates after Elliott made a beeline for one of the kettles following a 2-yard scoring run, jumped in and crouched down far enough to disappear.The four large kettles -- two beyond each end zone -- are staples at Dallas games from the Thanksgiving game to the end of the season with one of the teams most visible charities. And a donation is coming.Actually Im going to match whatever they fine me with a donation to the Salvation Army, said Elliott, who rushed for a career-high 159 yards to push his NFL-leading total to 1,551.So Elliott must have answered his own question about getting fined while helping Dallas bounce back a week after a franchise-record 11-game winning streak ended.He was actually talking about that pregame, should he do it, will they fine him, said fellow rookie Dak Prescott, Elliotts quarterback. I didnt know he was actually going to go down and come back up slow. Got a good laugh out of it, him coming up real slowly. It was funny.Coach Jason Garrett wasnt amused, mostly because of the 15-yard penalty assessed on the kickoff.But Garrett was pleased by Dallas response to last weeks loss at the New York Giants. And the rally after a 17-3 lead turned into a 20-17 deficit following a pair of touchdown passes by Jameis Winston.One of the words we talked about right from the outset this week was `response, Garrett said. We did a good job early in the ballgame to get a lead and they started throwing the ball a lot early in the second half and they went ahead. And again, that word `response came back to the forefront.Things to consider after Dallas stayed two games ahead of the New York Giants in the NFC East, now needing just a win or a New York loss or tie to clinch home field for the postseason:BUCS PLAYOFF PICTURE: Tampa Bay (8-6) had its five-game winning streak snapped and fell a game behind Atlanta in the NFC South. The Bucs are not currently in the top six in the NFC. Weve just got to keep winning, see how it plays out, Winston said. I know Im going to keep fighting. We just got to keep winning games.PRESCOTTS RECOVERY: After his worst game as a pro in a 10-7 loss to the Giants, which generated more talk about former starter and current backup Tony Romo, Prescott went 32 of 36 for 279 yards. There was less time spent on social media, but that was about the only thing different, said Prescott, who broke Don Merediths 50-year-old club record with his sixth rushing touchdown.WINSTON IN PRIME TIME: Still looking for his first playoff trip -- and the clubs first in nine years -- Winston had mixed results in his debut in the Sunday night spotlight. He threw for 247 yards with touchdowns to Adam Humphries and Cameron Brate but had four turnovers, including an interception that led to Dallas go-ahead field goal in a 20-all game.BACK TO DEFENSE: Now that a five-game streak of holding teams to less than 21 points is over after Tampa Bay allowed 449 yards total offense, the Bucs get New Orleans Drew Brees again two weeks after intercepting him three times. We have to learn from this and know we have face another offense with a great quarterback at their home field, cornerback Brent Grimes said.---For more NFL coverage:
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https://twitter.com/apschuyler . Robredo, ranked No. 16, bounced back from an upset loss to Leonardo Mayer in the second round of the Royal Guard Open in Chile last week to down Carreno Busta in 1 hour, 25 minutes. On a day filled mostly with qualifying matches, fifth-seeded Marcel Granollers of Spain also entered the second with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 win over Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia, while Guido Pella of Argentina defeated Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 7-6 (6), 6-4 to advance. . LOUIS -- The New Orleans Saints looked like a team playing out the string. . Blackwood, 28, has played the last three seasons in the San Diego Padres system, including the past two summers with Class AA San Antonio of the Texas League. . Any real chance at payback wont come until the playoff. Still, Pittsburgh knows its taut 3-2 win over the Bruins on Wednesday night is a pretty good place to start laying the groundwork. "They are a very good defensive team," Penguins forward Brandon Sutter said. . Jordan Lynch, the all-purpose Heisman Trophy finalist from Northern Illinois, failed to make it into that exclusive club. LAS VEGAS -- Sergey Kovalev was knocking out everyone put in front of him when his handlers went to HBO a few years back asking for a coveted spot on one of the networks boxing shows.Not so fast, the network said.You got two problems with this guy, promoter Kathy Duva remembers an HBO executive saying. One, hes a light heavyweight. Two, hes a Russian.Two problems, indeed. The combination isnt particularly attractive to boxing fans, or the network that buys many of the biggest fights.But on Saturday, it doesnt matter that Kovalev is a champion at light heavyweight, a division that historically has gotten little respect. Not when hes got unbeaten Andre Ward in front of him in a classic slugger vs. boxer matchup that is perhaps the most anticipated fight of the year.And the Russian part? Well, it helps that Kovalev now lives most of the year in Los Angeles and has quickly picked up the English language.I learned English only with reporters, he said this week, displaying a gift for gab in his new language with a small group of boxing scribes.Seven years after coming to the United States to seek fame and fortune, Kovalev is on the brink of both. A devastating puncher who has not lost in 31 fights, he will try to do what no one has done in 20 years -- win a fight against Ward, the last American man to win boxing gold in the Olympics.If the fight isnt compelling enough, Kovalevs story should be enough for some to pony up the $64.95 to watch it at home. His Russian fans will get the fight free, with the nations Channel 1 lined up to broadcast the bout live in his home country.America gave me opportunity. Its two great countries for me, Kovalev said. I love both countries, which is why I have two houses, in Russia and America.Kovalev comes from a fighting family, though he is the only one to actually put on gloves and do it in the ring. His mother, he says, used to beat up people as a child in Chelyabinsk, a factory town, where she works in a liquid metals plant.My mother fought a lot of times on the street growing up, even with boys, he said. She grew up in poor area.Kovalev grew up poor, too, with the family of five living in two rooms of a three-room apartment they shared with an unrelated elderly woman. He fought in the amateurs, though he neever got a shot at making the Russian Olympic boxing team, before deciding to come to the U.ddddddddddddS. and turn pro.Hooking up with Egis Klimas, a Lithuanian immigrant who now manages a number of Russian and Eastern European fighters, he fought for a few dollars here and there in tiny places he describes as garages.Kovalev was undefeated in 17 fights but still a relative unknown when he returned home to face Roman Simakov in a fight that turned tragic. Kovalev stopped Simakov in the seventh round of the December 2011 fight, and Simakov fell into a coma and later died.The death devastated Kovalev, and it might have unraveled his career like it has other fighters who have killed men in the ring. He would later reach out to try to take care of Simakovs family, but the pain still lingers to a point he rarely will talk about the fateful night.Kovalevs big break came when he was signed by Duvas Main Events promotional company. Duva would get the HBO dates she sought in that first meeting, and it didnt take long for the boxer they call Krusher to become a regular on the network.He dominated the ancient but still crafty Bernard Hopkins in 2014, forcing him into retirement, at least temporarily. And two knockout wins over Canadas Jean Pascal in Montreal cemented his status as the best 175-pounder in the world.Now he takes on Ward, the former 168-pound champion who has fought only three times in the last three years. Bookies in this gambling town make Ward, a defensive specialist and extraordinary boxer, a slight favorite, but Kovalev believes he will prevail.He doesnt have a punch like Mike Tyson, but hes very smart and has good defense, Kovalev says. Its not dangerous, but hes a tough target. He does very smart things in the ring.Kovalev has been doing some smart things, too. Perhaps none smarter than taking a chance and coming to the U.S. with nothing in his pocket and only his dreams.I love this country, he said. Im very comfortable with the people and the boxing in America.---Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlbeg(at)ap.org or
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