Pirate Galaxy » ut other sports involved included swim

DAVIE, Fla. -- Being an aggressive cornerback, Xavien Howard interrupted an inquisitors question Tuesday, and it went incomplete.The subject was Howards most eye-catching attribute, and the Miami Dolphins rookie eagerly jumped in midway through the query.Ball skill, Howard answered. Ive been a playmaker. They got me here for a reason. Ive just got to do what I did in college, and do more. Yes sir. Takeaways. Yes sir.Now that hes back at practice, the Dolphins second-round draft pick is showing some swagger. Howard missed the first three weeks of camp recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery, which may have spoiled his chances of starting at cornerback in the season opener.He was activated last week from the physically unable to perform list, practiced for the third day in a row Tuesday, and could provide a significant upgrade in a shaky secondary.It feels good to be back out there competing again with my guys, Howard said.The former Baylor star required right knee surgery after hurting his knee on the final day of minicamp in June. That temporarily took him out of the competition for the job opposite veteran newcomer Byron Maxwell.Howard said his goal remains to win a starting job this year, and hes not fretting about the practice time missed.I wouldnt call it a setback, he said. Id just say its a learning process that I went through, and Im just learning from it -- a lot of mental reps, just seeing what the older guys were doing and learning from them.Before the injury, Howard received favorable reviews in offseason drills. New coach Adam Gase especially liked the knack Howard showed for deflections and interceptions.He gets his hands on a lot of balls, Gase said. When he does get both hands up to make a play on the ball, he usually catches it.Howard made nine interceptions in his final two years at Baylor, and now the Dolphins are eager to see him in an NFL game. Hell sit out Thursday against Atlanta, but expects to play in next weeks preseason finale, and has no doubt hell play in the season opener Sept. 11 at Seattle.In Howards absence, converted receiver Tony Lippett has been working with the first team at cornerback. Expected to join the mix eventually is veteran newcomer Chris Culliver, who has yet to practice while he recovers from a serious knee injury last Thanksgiving.This week the Dolphins have slowly been working Howard into one-on-one and team drills.I wouldnt say hes far behind mentally, Gase said. Hes dialed in to what were doing. Hes playing one-on-one coverage a lot of the time. Thats his strength. Were going to try to lean on his strength of matching him up with somebody and letting him go.That sounds good to Howard. He wore an NFL uniform for the first time Friday, watching from the sideline when the Dolphins played at Dallas.I just couldnt explain the feeling, he said. It was my first NFL game and I was excited, cheering guys on.Soon he expects to have teammates cheering for him.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP-NFL---Follow Steven Wine on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Steve-Wine. 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A scathing report outlining a state-sanctioned doping system in Russia prompted immediate calls for the nations entire team to be sidelined from the Summer Games, raising the possibility that the Olympics could go on without a sports superpower for the first time since the 1980s.The investigation released Monday confirmed a scheme run out of the anti-doping lab in Moscow that ensnared 28 summer and winter sports, from track to snowboarding to table tennis. It lasted at least four years and involved at least 312 positive tests that went unreported at the behest of higher-ups in the countrys sports ministry.A mind-blowing level of corruption within both Russian sport and government, said Travis Tygart, the CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.The World Anti-Doping Agency swiftly called for the International Olympic Committee to consider a full ban of the Russian team from the Summer Olympics, which start Aug. 5 in Rio de Janiero. IOC president Thomas Bach said the committee wouldnt hesitate to apply the toughest sanctions available.The IOC executive board will meet Tuesday to begin sorting through options.Its no sure thing the Russians will receive a blanket ban. Its a decision filled with political ramifications that involve a key Olympic country. It puts the IOC in the position of ruling against against one of its biggest supporters, a nation that spent more than $50 billion hosting the Winter Games in Sochi just two years ago. Not since the back-to-back boycotts by the United States in 1980, then the Soviet Union in 1984, have the Olympics been contested without one of its biggest players.Bach has frequently spoken about the fine line between collective responsibility and individual justice. And for every anti-doping agency and athlete group calling for a full ban, theres seemingly another sports organization or leader urging restraint.The right to participate at the games cannot be stolen from an athlete, who has duly qualified and has not been found guilty of doping, said Bruno Grandi, president of gymnastics international federation. Blanket bans have never been and will never be just.Gymnastics was not among the sports listed in the report. Wrestling, meanwhile, accounted for 28 of the 312 unreported positives. The head of that international federation, Nenad Lalovic of Serbia, told The Associated Press we will absolutely follow the decisions of the IOC.But in making decisions about Russias team as a whole, the IOC could put onus on the international sports federations to determine the penalties.In the ongoing case involving Russias track team, it was that sports federation, the IAAF, that ultimately banned the team from the Olympics. But 68 Russian track-and-field athletes are appealing this week to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to compete in Rio, with a decision due Thursday. In a move that accentuates how complicated the matter can become, the IOC has said there is no contingency for a large group of Russians competing under a neutral flag -- that Russians should compete for the Russian team if theyre allowed in.Mondays report, commissioned by WADA and written by arbitrator Richard McLaren, said allegations made by Moscows former anti-doping lab director about sample switching at the Sochi Olympics went much as described in a New York Times story in May. That program involved dark-of-night bottle tampering in order to switch dirty samples with clean ones; it prevented Russian athletes, including more than a dozen medal winners, from testing positive.ddddddddddddBut McLaren said the bottle tampering in Sochi was a one-shot deal. Meanwhile, he described tactics he labeled disappearing positive methodology that began in 2011, shortly after Russias disappointing performance at the Vancouver Olympics. It included the 2013 track world championships in Moscow and was in place as recently as the 2015 swimming world championships in Kazan -- when everyone in Russian sports knew they were under the doping microscope.Russias deputy minister of sports, Yuri Nagornykh, who was also part of Russias Olympic Committee, would direct workers at the Moscow lab of which positive samples to send through to be reported to WADA and which to hold back. Assisting the plan was Russias national security service -- the FSB, the current version of the Soviet Unions KGB.The Moscow laboratory was effectively caught up in the jaws of a vice, the report said. It was a key player in the successful operation of a state imposed and rigorously controlled program, which was overall managed and dictated by the (Ministry of Sport).Yes, McLaren wrote, it could be made to seem as though workers at the laboratory were acting alone. But his investigation undercut that theory.The Moscow Laboratory personnel acted as they did because, as (one) witness expressed, if they did not, they would no longer be employed there, he concluded.On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said officials named as directly responsible in the doping scheme would be suspended. He asked for more information from WADA so Russia could conduct its own investigation.McLaren said out of 577 positive sample screenings he had access to, 312 positive results were held back -- or labeled Save by the lab workers. More than 250 of the 312 Saves came from track and field and weightlifting, but other sports involved included swimming, rowing, snowboarding -- even table tennis.McLaren suggested the numbers could have been higher, but he had only 57 days for his investigation.Time is crucial because the Olympics begin Aug. 5, and decisions about Russias participation in Rio must be made.WADA president Craig Reedie, who is also an IOC member, said WADA is working to establish guidelines that will help the IOC and international sports federations identify exceptions to a potential Russian ban -- notably, athletes who trained in other countries that had robust, clean anti-doping systems. Those athletes, WADA said, should be allowed to compete in Rio under a neutral flag.McLaren said he was unwaveringly confident in his report, and insisted there was no leak, as several sports leaders suggested over the weekend, when draft letters calling for Russias ban were leaked to the media.One of the letters co-signers was Paul Melia, who heads Canadas anti-doping organization and was in Toronto for McLarens presentation.Im shocked and devastated by whats been going on, Melia said. And I can only imagine how betrayed the clean athletes of the world are feeling today in the face of this evidence.---AP Sports Writers Luke Meredith, Will Graves and Graham Dunbar and correspondent Charmaine Noronha contributed to this report. ' ' '