SPORTS BRIEFS: Former NFL coach Dennis Green dies at 67

Former Vikings, Cardinals coach Dennis Green dies at 67

Former Minnesota Vikings and Arizona Cardinals head coach Dennis Green died early Friday morning after suffering a heart attack. He was 67.

Family friend and former agent Ray Anderson confirmed the death to ESPN’s Adam Schefter after speaking with Green’s wife. Anderson said Green died after a cardiac arrest.

Former Vikings running back Robert Smith, now a FOX Sports college football analyst, posted a message on Twitter.

“Rest in peace Denny. I lost my mother in April, I feel like I just lost father,” Smith tweeted

Green made eight playoff appearances in 10 seasons with the Vikings and reached the NFC Championship Game in 1998 and 2000. He led the Vikings to a 15-1 regular season in 1998.

Green finished his career in 2006 with a 113-94 overall record in 13 seasons as a head coach and a 4-8 mark in the postseason.

Green spent 17 years as a coach in the NFL. He was a special teams coordinator with the San Francisco 49ers for a season and later their wide receivers coach for three seasons in the 1980s.

After a stint as the head coach of Stanford University, Green returned to the NFL and led the Vikings from 1992 through 2001. He returned three years later as the head coach of the Cardinals from 2004 through 2006.

Green also served as a head coach at Northwestern.

Steelers RB Bell faces 4-game ban for missed drug test

Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell is facing a four-game suspension for missing a drug test in violation of the NFL’s substance-abuse policy, according to multiple reports Friday.

Sources told ESPN’s Dan Graziano that the suspension is the result of a missed drug test, not a failed one. Bell’s appeal is expected to be heard before the start of the season.

If the appeal is not overturned, Bell would miss the first four games of the season. Players are tested once for recreational drugs between April 20 and July.

Bell was suspended for the first three games last season — which was later reduced to two games — for violating the substance-abuse policy after he was arrested for DUI and marijuana possession in the summer of 2014.

Bell, who had right knee surgery last November, said recently he was on schedule for when the Steelers’ camp opens on July 28. He suffered a torn MCL and PCL in Week 8.

The 24-year-old fourth-year running back played in six games last year and rushed for 556 yards with three touchdowns.

Bell, who is entering the final year of his rookie contract, was a Pro Bowl and First-Team All-Pro choice in 2014 after rushing for 1,361 yards and eight touchdowns, with 854 receiving yards and three TDs.

Oklahoma State forward dies following workout

Oklahoma State basketball Tyrek Coger died after he collapsed following a 40-minute team workout Thursday afternoon.

Coger, 21, was transported to Stillwater Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 6:23 p.m. CT.

Oklahoma State coach Brad Underwood broke down at a press conference on Friday while discussing Coger.

“This is the hardest couple of days I’ve ever experienced in my coaching life,” Underwood said. “You say goodbye to players when they graduate and that’s one thing. Making that phone call to a mother is — there’s no words.”

Underwood was recruiting in Las Vegas when he heard the news.

Coger, a junior-college transfer, arrived on campus July 5.

“Tyrek was excited to be at Oklahoma State and had such passion for the game and was looking forward to being an OSU Cowboy,” Underwood previously said in a statement. “Losing a member of the team is like losing a member of the family. But we know our loss pales in comparison to the pain his family is going through.”

University officials said Friday that Coger didn’t appear to be having any issues during Thursday’s workout on the football stadium stairs.

But a short time after the conclusion of the workout, Coger was experiencing distress and paramedics arrived at 5:08 p.m. Coger arrived at Stillwater Medical Center at 5:48 and died 35 minutes later.

The temperature was 99 degrees at the time of the workout, according to the Stillwater News Press.

Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder said the school will examine its summer practice procedures in the wake of Coger’s death.

Coger was a graduate of Word of God Christian Academy in Raleigh, N.C. The 6-foot-9 forward played the 2013-14 season at East Florida State, sat out the 2014-15 academic year and resumed his studies at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, N.C., last year.

In his lone season at Cape Fear, he averaged 12.2 points and 7.0 rebounds while shooting 52.6 percent from the field.