Scoreboard

Kurt warner wins MVP

Kurt Warner now has something Dan Marino and John Elway never achieved: two NFL Most Valuable Player awards.

The St. Louis Rams quarterback won The Associated Press MVP award for the second time Wednesday, beating teammate Marshall Faulk. Warner, the league's leading passer, guided the Rams to the NFL's best record, 14-2.

"I feel good, I feel like my decision-making has been better this year than in any year I've played at this level," said Warner, who stormed onto the NFL scene in 1999 out of Arena Football to lead the Rams to their first Super Bowl title.

Although Warner threw an NFC-high 22 interceptions this year, he easily led everyone in yards passing (4,830, second-most in league history) and touchdown passes (36).

Ozzie Smith landed with ease, touching down in Cooperstown with the flair of one of his favorite backflips. Smith, who made a career out of turning difficult plays into dazzling ones, was overwhelmingly elected to the Hall of Fame on Tuesday in his first year of eligibility.

The Wizard of Oz, regarded as the finest-fielding shortstop ever, was the lone player picked. Not since Reggie Jackson in 1993 has only one player been enshrined. Smith's ceremony will take place July 28 in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Elected officials in the Washington area threw their support behind a resolution urging Washington's NFL team to abandon the Redskins name. "Change the team's name prior to the 2002-2003 football season," are the final words of a one-page resolution passed Wednesday by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. It describes the storied logo as a "racist insult" that is "morally unacceptable."

"We have no plans to change the name," said Karl Swanson, the team's senior vice president.