Dungy announces he will coach next season

INDIANAPOLIS -- Tony Dungy is sticking with the Colts.

Dungy announced Monday he would coach Indianapolis through at least the 2008 season and possibly longer before turning over the duties to hand-picked successor Jim Caldwell.

Dungy, the first black coach to win a Super Bowl, spent a week meeting with his family, close friends and trusted colleagues while deciding whether to return for a seventh season with the Colts.

It's the third straight year Dungy seriously considered retiring.

"I wouldn't shortchange my family," he said. "I wouldn't come back if my wife or my children were not for it."

Dungy has won five straight AFC South titles, taking the Colts to two AFC championship games and winning last year's Super Bowl.

Rivers to have surgery

SAN DIEGO -- Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers said Monday that he had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee a week ago in order to play in the AFC championship game, and that he'll need surgery on the torn anterior cruciate ligament in the same joint.

Rivers made it through Sunday's 21-12 loss to the perfect New England Patriots despite the damage to his knee, which he sustained in an upset win over the Indianapolis Colts a week earlier.

Rivers said he'd like to have surgery as soon as possible on the torn ACL.

Bills' Hargrove suspended

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Buffalo Bills defensive end Anthony Hargrove was suspended without pay for all next season Monday by the NFL after violating the league's substance abuse policy a third time.

The violation was Hargrove's second since August, when he was suspended without pay for the first four games of the regular season.

A third violation triggers an automatic one-year suspension, and Hargrove must apply to commissioner Roger Goodell for reinstatement.

The NFL did not disclose how Hargrove violated the policy. Violations can result from positive tests, failure to cooperate in the testing program or failing to comply with a treatment plan.

The Bills acquired Hargrove, a 2004 third-round selection out of Georgia Tech, in a trade with St. Louis in October 2006, soon after he lost his starting job with the Rams for skipping two days of practice and meetings.

-- The Associated Press