ENGLEWOOD, Colo. - The NFLs officiating chief has cleared Broncos receiver Wes Welker of any wrongdoing for his hit that knocked Patriots cornerback Aqib Talib out of Sundays AFC Championship. "It was a legal hit," Vice-President of Officiating Dean Blandino said on the NFL Network on Wednesday night. On Monday, New England coach Bill Belichick blasted Welker for the hit, calling it "one of the worst plays" hed seen in nearly four decades of coaching. Without mentioning his former player by name, Belichick said it "was a deliberate play by the receiver to take out Aqib, no attempt to get open." He added, "Ill let the league handle the discipline on that play." There will be no discipline for Welker; Blandino said there was simply no infraction of the rules. Welker, coming from the right, collided with Talib, who was running from the left to stay with his receiver, a split-second before Peyton Mannings pass went off the hands of receiver Demaryius Thomas a few yards away in the first quarter Sunday. No flag was thrown. Talib left the game with a knee injury and didnt return, and Manning threw for 400 yards in Denvers 26-16 win that sent the top-seeded Broncos to the Super Bowl. "The first potential foul would be for offensive pass interference; a receiver cant block downfield before the ball is touched, so the timing is important," Blandino said on his weekly appearance on the NFL Network. He noted that as "contact occurs, the ball is touched almost simultaneously. We dont have a foul for pass interference." "The other thing, is it unnecessary roughness? Under the current rules it isnt," Blandino said. "Its not late; Talib wasnt out of the play." Given that an injury occurred, Blandino said he expects the leagues competition committee to examine the play in the off-season "and determine if there needs to be a change. But under the current rules, this is a legal play." Welker, who had a cool relationship with Belichick before leaving New England as a free agent last off-season, hasnt been available for comment this week as the Broncos wont practice until Thursday. But after the game, Welker said, "it was one of those plays where its kind of a rub play and I was trying to get him to go over the top, and I think he was thinking the same thing and wanted to come underneath and we just kind of collided. ... It wasnt a deal where I was trying to hit him or anything like that." Broncos coach John Fox responded to Belichicks stinging criticism on Monday by saying Welker is a "a great player, high integrity. I can say that we were not doing anything with intent." At 5-foot-9 and 185 pounds, Welker is 4 inches shorter and 20 pounds lighter than Talib. Hes also wearing a special helmet to guard against further head injury after missing the final month of the season with his second concussion. Hes also never been known as a dirty player. Patriots safety Steve Gregory said he didnt think Welker would deliberately try to hurt a player, saying, "I dont think anybody plays that way, especially at this level of football with two great football teams in the Broncos and ourselves." Blandino said he has spoken with Belichick this week about the play "and obviously there is a difference of opinion there and something that well continue to look at during the off-season." ___ AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org ___ Follow AP Pro Football Writer Arnie Melendrez Stapleton on Twitter: http://twitter.com/arniestapleton Adidas Nmd Danmark . He did one better Sunday by holing out a pitching wedge from 142 yards for eagle, capping a remarkable 28 on the back nine to win The Championship at Laguna National. Adidas Nmd Herre Udsalg . Blackhawks RW Patrick Kane came up big when it counted, tallying two goals and an assist. He scored the game-winner with 4:45 remaining in the third period, stopping on the right hashmarks, carrying the puck up through the top of the Kings zone, then firing a wrist shot from the top of the circles past Jonathan Quick, who had his view obstructed by Andrew Shaw. http://www.dknmdskotilbud.com/adidas-basketball-sko-outlet-danmark.html .com) - The Atlanta Hawks have stepped up to every challenge during their 14-game winning streak and will face another daunting task Friday with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder in town. Adidas Nmd R2 Herre Dk . Henderson (20-3) received winning scores of 48-47 and 49-46, and the other judge scored it 48-47 for Thomson (20-6). The announcement drew boos from the United Center crowd. "Train this hard for this long, its such a long camp and I see my title shot disappear," said Thomson, who fought most of the fight with a broken right hand. Adidas Nmd Sko Dame . Coming off a 6-0 drubbing at Chelsea on Saturday, Arsenal endured another demoralizing result after rallying for a 2-1 lead -- only to concede a fluke equalizer.Melbourne, Australia - World No. 1 Novak Djokovic and defending champion Stan Wawrinka both breezed into the third round at the Australian Open on Thursday. The four-time Aussie titlist Djokovic won the first nine games and needed just 84 minutes to dispose of Russian Andrey Kuznetsov 6-0, 6-1, 6-4 at Rod Laver Arena. Overall I executed the game plan, said Djokovic. Everything I intended to do, almost 100 percent, from every second in my game, serve, baseline play, aggressive shots and aggressive returns. He [Kuznetsov] dropped his first-serve percentage a lot in the second set and obviously allowed me to have a lot of looks at the second serves. That, as well, gave me an opportunity to step in and just swing through the ball. The reigning Wimbledon champion Djokovic captured three straight Aussie crowns from 2011-13. His next step toward becoming the second man to win five Aussie Open titles will come Saturday against 31st-seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, who handled Japans Go Soeda 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) at Melbourne Park. The fourth-seeded Wawrinka extended his winning streak at this major to nine with a 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 win over Romanian qualifier Marius Copil. The tight affair saw the champ win just four more points than the game Copil, playing in his first Grand Slam main draw. It was quite a tough match, said Wawrinka. Happy to get through, especially in three sets. Condition wasnt easy today. Quite hot, really fast on the court, and he was playing great. He was serving big, putting lots of pressure. Wasnt playing my best tennis, but Im happy the way I fight today. Wawrinka has reached the third round in Melbourne seven years running. His next opponent will be Finnish left-hander Jarkko Nieminen. Fifth-seeded Kei Nishikori fell behind early against Croat Ivan Dodig, but wound up pulling out a 4-6, 7-5, 6-2, 7-6 (7-0) victory, while eighth-seeded Canadian Milos Raonic topped American Donald Young 6-4, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 and ninth-seeded former French Open runner-up David Ferrer overcame Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. Feliciano Lopez, seeded 12th, trailed by two sets to Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, staved off a match point in the third and advanced when Mannarino retired ddue to heat exhaustion in the fourth.ddddddddddddLopez was leading 4-0 in the fourth prior to Mannarino calling it quits, as Lopez moved on in 4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 4-0 fashion. American John Isner reached the round of 32 with a 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 6-4 decision over Austrian Andreas Haider-Maurer. The 19th-seeded Isner avoided a date with No. 13 Roberto Bautista Agut, who was ousted by Luxembourgs Gilles Muller 7-6 (7-5), 1-6, 7-5, 6-1 on Day 4. In other second-round action involving seeds, 6-foot-8 Pole Jerzy Janowicz upended No. 17 Frenchman Gael Monfils 6-4, 1-6, 6-7 (3-7), 6-3, 6-3, No. 18 Frenchman Gilles Simon bested Spaniard Marcel Granollers 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, 6-4, and American Steve Johnson pulled off a mild upset with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 pasting of No. 30 Colombian Santiago Giraldo. Johnson will next square off against Nishikori, last years U.S. Open runner-up. Also on Thursday, Nieminen doused German Matthias Bachinger 7-6 (7-4), 7-5, 7-5; Canadas Vasek Pospisil overcame Italian Paolo Lorenzi 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, 6-4; Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez bested Colombian Alejandro Gonzalez 6-1, 6-3, 6-3; and German Benjamin Becker came all the way back to dismiss long-time Aussie favorite Lleyton Hewitt 2-6, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. The 33-year-old former world No. 1 Hewitt is a two-time Grand Slam champion and former Aussie Open runner-up. Becker should have his hands full with the big- serving Raonic on Saturday. The third round will get underway Friday, as second-seeded former world No. 1 Roger Federer will face Italian Andreas Seppi, third-seeded former top-ranked star Rafael Nadal will battle Israeli Dudi Sela and sixth-seeded three-time Aussie Open runner-up Andy Murray will tangle with Portuguese Joao Sousa. Federer owns 17 a mens-record major titles, including four at the Aussie Open. The 14-time Grand Slam winner and reigning French Open king Nadal beat Federer in the 2009 final and is a two-time runner-up here, including last year when he was stunned by Wawrinka in the finale. Also on Day 5, seventh-seeded former Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych will take on Serb Viktor Troicki and 10th-seeded Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov will be opposed by former Melbourne runner-up Marcos Baghdatis. ' ' 'with seven receptions for 172 yards. Until his second touchdown, the first-ever meeting between the two conference champions - New Hampshire in CAA Football and Chattanooga in the Southern Conference - was extremely tight. Huesman had 428 total yards and accounted for three touchdowns in Chattanoogas loss, which ended a seven-game losing streak. Goldrich threw for 228 yards and three touchdowns and ran for a score for New Hampshire. The Wildcats went ahead for good 28-24 on Nico Steritis 6-yard draw with 13:23 left in the fourth quarter. But the play nearly didnt happen. Chattanooga defensive back Trevor Knight intercepted Goldrich in the Mocs end zone. But video replay confirmed Knight didnt re-establish himself in the end zone before catching the ball. On the next play, Steriti scored his second touchdown of the game to erase a 24-22 New Hampshire deficit. An attempt for a two-point conversion failed, however. Trailing 22-21 after three quarters, Chattanooga (10-4) went ahead when Henrique Ribeiro kicked a 27-yard field goal on the second play of the fourth quarter. The kick stopped a string of four straight missed field goal attempts by Ribeiro during the playoffs. New Hampshire had kept seven of its previous opponents to under 20 points, but Chattanooga took a 21-15 lead into halftime after Huesman scored from 1 yard out with 21 seconds remaining in the second quarter. It completed a huge first half in which he was 15-for-17 for 167 yards and rushed for another 64 yards and two touchdowns. His second touchdown erased a 15-14 Mocs deficit. Goldrich threw a 49-yard scoring pass to Harris with 4:47 left and then holder Andy Vailas ran in a faked extra point for the two-point conversion. ' ' '