NATION

NATION
NFL roundup
*NEW ORLEANS -- If Michael Vick plays today at New Orleans, he will be in position to set on an NFL rushing record.
The Atlanta Falcons star, who is questionable with a left shoulder injury, needs 80 yards to break Bobby Douglass' mark for yards rushing by a quarterback in a season. He has 889 yards, and Douglass had 968 in 1972 for the Chicago Bears.
Vick is averaging a league-best 7.6 yards a carry. He needs 111 yards to become the first quarterback to rush for 1,000 in a season.
*EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The New York Giants placed defensive tackle Norman Hand on injured reserve Saturday, ending his season.
Hand, a 10-year NFL veteran, had not played since injuring his groin in a Nov. 28 game against Philadelphia. He had 15 tackles and one sack this season.
The team also signed offensive lineman Morgan Pears to its active roster from its practice squad.
Pears was signed to the practice squad Sept. 21. First signed as an undrafted free agent by Miami in 2003, Pears soon was released. The Colorado State product then was signed to Pittsburgh's active roster Dec. 31 and waived Aug. 27.
He played in 10 games for the Scottish Claymores of NFL Europe last spring.
The Giants play Cincinnati today.
Straight talk
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- A group of high school athletes got some straight talk from freshmen football players at Tennessee.
Twenty-three players, including quarterbacks Erik Ainge and Brent Schaeffer, wrote short essays about something they had to overcome. They read those essays in a performance called Freshman Vol Talk.
The audience was high school players involved in Play It Smart, a program started by the National Football Foundation. The freshmen talked about flunking out of ninth grade, dealing with the death of a relative and being homesick. The two freshman quarterbacks read about getting injured this season in a performance that was like a rap duet.
"Some of them had problems at home and they stuck with it. There are kids like that at this school," said Bradley Cooper, a junior at Fulton High School, who attended the program. "They said stuff we really did need to hear."
Azeri retiredfrom racing
LOS ANGELES -- Azeri, who was Horse of the Year in 2002 and one of top females in thoroughbred racing history, was retired from competition and will be sent to Kentucky to be bred.
The 6-year-old daughter of Jade Hunter won three Grade I races this year, raising her career total to 11. She finished fifth in her final race -- the Breeders' Cup Classic on Oct. 30 when she competed against males.
Owner Michael Paulson said in a press release, issued late Thursday, that the decision to retire Azeri was made in consultation with trainer D. Wayne Lukas.
"Champion horses like Azeri are what every owner and breeder of these magnificent animals strives for, and I have been very blessed and fortunate to have campaigned this exceptional horse," Paulson said. "I am very excited about her prospects as a broodmare, and look forward to the opportunity of seeing her foals with their mother's champion qualities."
Azeri will be moved from Lukas' barn at Santa Anita sometime next week. It was not immediately clear where she will board in Kentucky.
Before this year, Azeri was trained by Laura de Seroux and moved to Lukas' barn after Paulson disagreed with De Seroux's recommendation that the mare be retired because of a tendon injury.
After winning her only two races as a 3-year-old, Azeri had seven straight graded stakes victories in 2002, capping her streak by winning the Breeders' Cup Distaff at Arlington Park.
She ends her career with 17 wins and four second-place finishes in 24 lifetime starts and earnings of $4,079,820.
Azeri was bred by Paulson's father, Allen, who died in 2000. He also bred and raced Cigar, whose lifetime earnings of just under $10 million is the most in racing history.
Wire reports
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