Some of the sports stories The Associated Press is covering Friday. A full Sports Digest will be sent by about 3 p.m. All times EST:- BOSTON -- Daily fantasy sports rivals DraftKings and FanDuel agree to merge after months of increasing scrutiny. The companies say they can now cut costs while battling regulators across the country to remain legal.- HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- With almost no fanfare, NASCARs most complicated driver is retiring Sunday. Tony Stewart will then be able to finally answer only to himself.- HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Kyle Busch is trying to repeat as NASCARs champion in the title-deciding finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.- CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Luke Kuechly was carted off the field Monday night with a possible concussion, which would be his second in two years. Coach Ron Rivera is to discuss the injury to the Panthers star linebacker.- FRISCO, Texas -- Dez Bryant says he couldnt have played a day after his fathers death without his teammates support. This team chemistry is one reason this is becoming a special season for the Cowboys.- Eleven years after ESPN telecast an NFL game from Mexico City, the network does so again when the Raiders play the Texans on Monday night. This time, ESPN intends to capture the full vibrancy of the city.- In the lone college football game Friday night involving a ranked team, No. 22 Boise State is home against UNLV. (9 p.m.). Boise State is back in the discussion for a major bowl after UNLV upset Wyoming last week.- Stories on three key games Saturday: No. 8 Oklahoma-No. 10 West Virginia; No. 12 Colorado-No. 20 Washington State; and No. 16 LSU-No. 21 Florida.- HARRISBURG, Pa. -- The judge who has presided over Jerry Sanduskys criminal case for five years is removing himself from the former Penn State assistant coachs appeal.- LOS ANGELES -- DAngelo Russell and Los Angeles Lakers go for their seventh victory in nine games when they play Pau Gasol and the first-place San Antonio Spurs, who have won four straight. Game starts 10:30 p.m.- Two notable mens college basketball games: No. 3 Villanova vs. Wake Forest at Charleston, S.C. (1:30 p.m.) and No. 11 Xavier vs. Clemson at Orlando, Fla. (1:30 p.m.).- LONDON -- Andy Murray qualifies for the semifinals of the ATP finals by beating Stan Wawrinka. Murray needs to do better than Novak Djokovic this weekend to finish the season at No. 1.- ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- Mackenzie Hughes is in front and one shot ahead of Stewart Cink entering the second round of the RSM Classic at Sea Island.- NAPLES, Fla. -- Shanshan Feng has the lead going into the second round of the CME Group Tour Championship, with the Chinese star trying to win her third straight event. Boone Jenner Blue Jackets Jersey . Vancouver Whitecaps and Toronto FC failed to make the postseason while Montreal Impact fell at the first hurdle losing heavily to Houston Dynamo in the Eastern Conference Knockout Round. Markus Nutivaara Blue Jackets Jersey . PAUL, Minn. http://www.bluejacketsshop.com/authentic-markus-hannikainen-blue-jackets-jersey/ . -- For the first time in two months, an opponent was standing up to Alabama. Joonas Korpisalo Jersey . The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the Lions have not announced the hiring, which was first reported by ESPN. Lombardi, the grandson of former Green Bay Hall of Fame coach Vince Lombardi, has been an offensive assistant on Sean Paytons New Orleans staff since 2007. Boone Jenner Jersey . Kyle Denbrook, a soccer player from Saint Marys University, took the CIS male athlete of the week honour. Stanley, a fourth-year business administration student from Charlottetown, scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Dalhousie on Friday and tallied again in a 1-0 win over Saint Marys on Sunday. ST. LOUIS - Within days of the St. Louis Cardinals missing the playoffs for the first time since 2010, the teams front office met and quickly zeroed in on what the club needed to get back to World Series contention. General manager John Mozeliak laid the plan out for the public at the teams annual postseason media conference.The Cardinals needed to be more athletic. They needed to catch and throw the ball more skillfully. They needed to add a dash of menace on the bases. As they discussed potential fixes, one other attribute sometimes entered their thinking. They wanted their team to better reflect the city in which it plays.The player they identified for their search was uniquely qualified to check off each of the boxes. Dexter Fowler has one of the most selective eyes in baseball, making him a perfect puzzle piece for the top of the lineup. He is an established center fielder whose defensive metrics are riding an uptick at age 30, when some players are beginning to slip. He is good for about 19 stolen bases a year, roughly three times what last years leading Cardinal base stealer, Stephen Piscotty, managed.It didnt hurt that the Cardinals were signing him away from the Chicago Cubs, the rival team he had just helped to its first World Series title since the Teddy Roosevelt administration.Nor was it lost on the Cardinals as they began contemplating a multi-year, big-money commitment that finding an African-American star could have social benefits in their community. Their background check on Fowler only reinforced their feeling that he was the perfect man for the job, prompting them to offer him a five-year, $82.5 million deal, which he agreed to last week.One of the things we think was very important about Dexter Fowler besides the baseball side of what he brought to the Cardinals was his understanding of social issues, Mozeliak said. He is very active in understanding whats happening around him. Hes a very bright and intelligent person and doesnt shy away from whats happening in communities.Fowlers signing has already helped reinforce the sometimes rickety bridge between the team and St. Louis large African-American community. It was even greeted with a statement of gratitude from the local NAACP.Me and my friends look up to him as not only an athlete, but a black athlete. Not many athletes playing baseball are of African-American descent, said Tommy Woods, a junior infielder at McCluer North High School. Him being on the Cardinals is just a real inspiration. It helps us stay on top of what we have to and helps us realize theres a chance for us, and we can always keep striving.Woods double-play partner, Dexter Swims, agreed: Dexter Fowler gives us hope that its possible for us to make it that far.Woods and Swims live in North St. Louis County, within a seven-minute drive of the St. Louis airport. Steer just a tick east, and you arrive in Ferguson, a little town that became a flash point for racial tension after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by white police officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9, 2014. Hundreds of students at McCluer North, many of whom live in Ferguson, protested by walking out of class with their hands raised, forcing a brief closure of the school.I went down there because I wanted to see where it happened, Swims said. It was kind of touching because the whole community came together, and they were hurt. It was sad to see so many people down and losing hope.Last year, just 8 percent of players on the Opening Day rosters of MLB teams were African-American, holding steady from 2012 but still the lowest it has been since the integration era. That decline is felt acutely in St. Louis, which has a large black population and one of baseballs most adoring fan cultures. The look of the team and the fans in its stadium often hasnt reflected the faces in the streets around the ballpark.The city of St. Louis, where Busch Stadium sits in the shadow of the Gateway Arch, is nearly 50 percent black, and the entire region of roughly 2.4 million people, is roughly 18 percent black. The Cardinals havent had a black All-Star in 19 years.Swims said he frequently hears from his black friends and fellow students that baseball is a white mans game. He counters by filling them in on the history of the sport and the transcendent way his favorite player, Jackie Robinson, changed the game with his bold dashes around the base paths. Both he and Woods have had contact from Division I baseball coaches and are hoping to receive scholarship offers. In that way, they could folloow Robinsons lead.dddddddddddd He starred at UCLA before finding fame with the Dodgers.For years, Swims father, also named Dexter, had him watch tapes of baseball from the 1980s and 1990s, when black participation was higher. In 1975, MLB was 27 percent African-American, a number that steadily declined for more than 20 years. At their family gatherings, people openly wondered when the Cardinals would sign or develop another black star. Jason Heyward played in St. Louis for one season but signed with the Cubs a year ago. Fowler could be the star theyve been waiting for.Its a lot to put on one player, particularly one who grew up not in St. Louis, but in Georgia. Fowler, however, sounds up to the task of embodying something more than his ability to catch a baseball or hit one. Before he signed with the Cardinals, he had a telephone conversation with Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith. A day later, at the press conference announcing his signing, he said the talk helped him feel more comfortable about making St. Louis his next baseball home, maybe his last. Fowler has previously played in Colorado, Houston and Chicago. He has a blanket no-trade clause.Just hearing the joy Ozzie had for the city, it definitely helped, Fowler said. You look at Lou Brock and some of these other guys, this is a good organization.Fowler, who is married to Darya Aliya Fowler, a woman of Iranian descent, said he would embrace helping build bridges between communities in and around St. Louis.I wouldnt say its forced. Its just something God has blessed me with, to be able to walk in a room and get along with everybody. My parents are the same way, Fowler said. Youve got to look past everything and realize everybody is themselves, and youve got to be humble about it.Smith would like to see the Cardinals with three or four prominent black players instead of one, but he understands the changing demographics within the game. Last season, reserve outfielder Tommy Pham was the teams lone black player until pitcher Jerome Williams arrived late in the season. The Cardinals had an otherwise diverse roster with players of Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Mexican, Colombian and South Korean descent.Its very important to have a player like Dexter. An organization has to start looking like its community, Smith said. If it doesnt look like its community, then when you look at the ballpark you dont see the community. Its got to be more inclusive. If you want more African-Americans at the ballpark, the imperative is to get African-American players. If you get them, and they go out and do their job every day and entertain people, youre probably going to get more people out at the ballpark. This is not rocket science.The heir to a team that Branch Rickey ran before he was hired by the Brooklyn Dodgers and broke baseballs color barrier by signing Robinson, Mozeliak is aware of the Cardinals place in the community.Four of the teams 10 all-time WAR leaders are black, and three of those players -- Bob Gibson, Lou Brock and Ozzie Smith -- are in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The 1964 Cardinals, in particular, helped reinforce the idea of integration when, in the World Series, they upset the New York Yankees -- still largely segregated under GM George Weiss -- with a team dominated by stellar black players such as Gibson, Brock, Bill White and Curt Flood. The Cardinals appeared in three more World Series in the 1980s, again behind largely African-American talent such as Smith, Willie McGee, Lonnie Smith, George Hendrick and Vince Coleman.Dexter Fowler has such a unique opportunity to really kind of build on that legacy, and were so proud of the Cardinals, who made not only a great decision on a player, but also in continuing to diversify and to keep inclusion at the forefront of their operation, said John Gaskin, spokesman for the St. Louis County NAACP.The Cardinals seem quietly confident they got the right man. If theyre right, his absence will hurt the rival Cubs. Hell continue to get on base at a high rate and hit the occasional home run. Hell stabilize their outfield and unclog base paths that seemed lined with molasses when the Cardinals were running.If it works out as well as they hope, hell also look around and embrace his new neighbors. Hell make Busch Stadium look more like the blocks around it, and hell make the blocks around it feel more like theyre part of whats happening at Busch Stadium. ' ' '