League

The Swarthmore Academy Knights showed on Tuesday that they can learn their lesson well. Rather than allow a week's respite from game action to bother them, they released that bottled up energy on a Tri-County Independent School opponent, Kimberton School. The Knights (9-6 overall) chalked up their fifth league victory in seven games with the 73-53 win over Kimberton (2-4 league, 2-4 overall). Swarthmore coach Mark Jordan said his team concentrated on mental preparation against the Knights - something it had omitted in a nonleague contest against Mercy Vocational a week ago. In last week's game, the Knights lost by more than 30 points.

Hoping to close the book on bounties, the NFL suspended New Orleans Saints defensive captain Jonathan Vilma without pay for all of next season Wednesday and gave shorter bans to three other players for their leading roles in the team's cash-for-hits system that knocked key opponents out of games from 2009-11. Defensive lineman Anthony Hargrove, now with the Green Bay Packers, was suspended for the first half of the 16-game season; Saints defensive end Will Smith was barred for the opening four games; and linebacker Scott Fujita, now with the Cleveland Browns, will miss the first three games of 2012.

ROMAN OFFENSE ROMAN DEFENSE Pos. PlayerNo. Pos. PlayerNo. C John Matthews. . . 62 T Jewhan Edwards. . . 68 G Mike Angelo. . . 77 T John Marcinek. . . 65 G Ed Krimmel. . . 50 T Ed Krimmel. . . 50 T Tahir Basil. . . 79 T Amir Little. . . 36 T John Mazzola. . . 52 T Bob Kalinoski. . . 72 TE Sean Clift. . . 18 E John Mazzola. . . 52 TE Andrew Regan. . . 21 E Reggie Irby. . . 46 WR Al Desiderio. . . 85 E Tahir Basil. . . 79 WR Nick Moody. . . 2 MLB Sean Clift.

The Deptford Township Little League, awash in more than $2,000 in back water bills, was promised a bailout last night by the Township Council. Mayor Beatrice Cerkez said the council decided to help with the bills "because of the children. You can't punish them because Little League officials made bad decisions. " In May, the Municipal Utilities Authorities (MUA) shut off water at the Harry J. McAleer Memorial League Complex after notifying league officials that the water would be cut off to the four ball fields near Route 41 unless $1,859.

The Bellmawr Little League will sponsor two events this summer to help foot the medical bills of Scott Merulla, 10, a player who was recently found to have a tumor on his spine. Next Sunday, Little League players will sponsor a car wash at league headquarters on Essex Avenue. The event will run from noon to 8 p.m. with a cost of $5 per car. In addition, a charity social dinner will be held on July 27 from 8 p.m. to midnight at the Bellmawr Park Fire Company on Essex Avenue.

The Hank Gathers College League will begin its third season tonight at Temple's McGonigle Hall. In tonight's first basketball game, at 7:15, Bell of Pennsylvania, led by Penn's Jerome Allen, will battle the Gladys Rodgers team, led by St. Joseph's Rap Curry and Temple's Derrick Battie. The league is named after Gathers, the former star at Dobbins Tech and Loyola Marymount who died of heart failure on March 4, 1990. Most games will be played at McGonigle Hall, at Broad Street and Montgomery Avenue, except for the first two weeks, when the games will be played in Temple's Pearson Hall and St. Joseph's Alumni Fieldhouse.

BLACK conservatives were the first to say Barack Obama didn't have the credentials to be president. Tom Sowell called him "glib. " Walter Williams said he had to be "a Jackie Robinson" in terms of achievement "and that's not Obama. " Jimmy Walker from "Good Times" is a talk-radio host in California who was dismayed at the thought of Obama as president after only a brief stint in the Senate. After two years in office, it's obvious Obama is way out of his league. Georgia Makiver, Lansdowne

NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue will let Kevin Allen know soon whether he can play in the league this season. Allen, the Eagles' 1985 No. 1 pick, who spent 33 months in jail for the Labor Day 1986 rape of a woman on a New Jersey beach, met with Tagliabue for more than 90 minutes yesterday at the league's headquarters in New York. "I can't talk about what he asked, except to say that they were intelligent questions that dealt with the events of the past and the prognosis and attitude toward the future," said Allen's attorney, Walter Lesnevich.

The NHL has seen no evidence players bet on league games through a gambling ring allegedly operated by Phoenix Coyotes assistant coach Rick Tocchet, deputy commissioner Bill Daly said yesterday. It was the first public disclosure by the league of the findings of its investigation, which is running in tandem with a criminal probe. Tocchet, the former Flyers star, along with a New Jersey state trooper and a third man are accused of running a ring that authorities say handled $1.7 million in bets during the six weeks leading up to this month's Super Bowl.

Former Phillies reliever Ricky Bottalico has agreed to a minor league contract with Arizona and will be invited to spring training. Bottalico, 33, was 0-3 with a 4.61 ERA in 30 appearances with the Phillies before undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery June 28. He will earn $500,000 if he makes the big-league roster and could make an additional $100,000 in performance bonuses. The Phillies offered Bottalico arbitration, but he declined. Before signing with Arizona, he also worked out for Atlanta.