Elway, Sanders elected into\nHall of Fame\nHOUSTON -- The stirring comeback and spectacular escape were unnecessary this time around. John Elway and Barry Sanders were elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame without a sweat.\nAs expected, two of the NFL's most dominating and exciting players made it in Saturday on their first attempt.\nElway, the king of the comeback, and Sanders, the master of escape, cemented their status among the all-time greats and were joined by Bob Brown and Carl Eller.\n"Until you said no way, or I was in the locker room taking my uniform off, I was going to try to find a way to win it," said Elway, the winningest quarterback in NFL history with 148 victories.\n"I want to tell every guy I played with, 'Thanks,'" he said.\nElway played in five Super Bowls, losing the first three and winning two in a row as his 16-year career wound down.\nSanders was the first player to rush for 1,000 yards in his first 10 seasons, leading the league in rushing four times. In 1997, he was co-MVP with Brett Favre after rushing for 2,053 yards, being only the third player to exceed 2,000 yards in a season. He ran for 100 yards or more in 14 consecutive games.
Watson wins Champions Skins\nWAILEA, Hawaii -- Tom Watson wanted to talk more about his childhood hero than himself after winning the Champions Skins Game.\n"Arnold (Palmer) was the star of the two days," Watson said. "He made everyone dream of Arnold's charges again. I think we're all part of Arnie's Army. He can still do it."\nWatson won the two-day event, taking the final five skins Saturday and $260,000 with a par on the third hole of a playoff.\nPalmer, who failed to win a skin the past two years, was second with five skins and $140,000. Jack Nicklaus made $60,000 with his three skins, and defending champion Lee Trevino was shut out.\nPalmer, playing in his 50th professional season, began the day in third place with $50,000. He had a chance to win in regulation but barely missed his 7-foot birdie putt to the right, sending it into a playoff.\n"It was a little indecision in my mind, and that was what cost me," Palmer said. "I was a little undecided as to what the putt might do going down there."\nThe leader after the first nine holes with $70,000, Watson finished the two-day event with $400,000 and 10 skins.
sh: Broken suspension keeps NASCAR stars from victory\nDAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Nobody was more surprised to be in Victory Lane at Daytona International Speedway than Christian Fittipaldi.\nFittipaldi combined with defending Daytona Prototype class champion Terry Borcheller, Andy Pilgrim and Forest Barber to win the Rolex 24 sports car endurance race Sunday.\n"Our car was a little bit hurt since 10 o'clock last night, and we were just nursing it along," Fittipaldi said.\nThey wound up on top when a broken suspension piece 20 minutes from the end cost NASCAR stars Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. and road racing ace Andy Wallace the win in a race they had led since the seventh hour Saturday night.\nFittipaldi, who has raced in Formula One, CART and NASCAR, insisted the win was not all luck, though. He pointed out that the winning team's Pontiac-powered Doran prototype was forced to run a slower-than-planned pace for most of the event because the engine was overheating.\n"But we were always running first, second or third, and, in my opinion, the competition was lucky we were running a slower pace than what we could have been," Fittipaldi said.\nStewart was at the wheel of the dominating Chevrolet-powered Crawford when the left rear tire pulled off the rim and sent the 2002 Winston Cup champion spinning to a stop on the backstretch, just missing the concrete wall.
