Fedex Field

— Just after dawn Tuesday, law enforcement officers began yanking hundreds of trucks off the Capital Beltway and funneling them to an inspection lot a long touchdown pass from FedEx Field. The truck-safety dragnet pulled over 420 rigs and resulted in 12 drivers and 87 vehicles being taken off the road. Offenses ranged from falsified log books and drivers spending too many hours behind the wheel to bad tires and defective brakes. "Within an hour, drivers from Maine to Florida will know we're out here," said State Police Capt.

WEATHER Today's forecast calls for cloudy skies, with a chance of showers throughout the day and a high temperature near 75 degrees. Tonight is expected to be cloudy, with a low temperature around 57 degrees. TRAFFIC Check our traffic updates for this morning's issues as you plan your commute. FROM LAST NIGHT... Hamilton hits four home runs as Rangers rout Orioles : When Rangers center fielder Josh Hamilton rounded the bases in the eighth inning -- becoming the 16th player in major league history to hit four home runs in one game -- those who remained of the announced 11,263 on hand at Camden Yards offered their appreciation with a standing ovation.

Maryland and Notre Dame have agreed to meet in football at FedEx Field in 2011 in what Maryland's athletic director calls "a statement game." It will be just the second football game between the schools. The Terps, then ranked No. 21, lost, 22-0, to the Fighting Irish at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., to open the 2002 season - Ralph Friedgen's second as coach in College Park. Maryland will not have to sacrifice a home game, even though FedEx Field - the Landover home of the Washington Redskins - is only about 12 miles from campus.

— Just after dawn Tuesday, law enforcement officers began yanking hundreds of trucks off the Capital Beltway and funneling them to an inspection lot a long touchdown pass from FedEx Field. The truck-safety dragnet pulled over 420 rigs and resulted in 12 drivers and 87 vehicles being taken off the road. Offenses ranged from falsified log books and drivers spending too many hours behind the wheel to bad tires and defective brakes. "Within an hour, drivers from Maine to Florida will know we're out here," said State Police Capt.

A year after the idea was first broached, the Ravens and Washington Redskins will promote their geographic rivalry with a controlled scrimmage at FedEx Field on July 28. That's just five days after the playoff-hopeful Ravens report to training camp this summer, and nine days after the NFC favorite Redskins report to camp. "I talked to Norv [Redskins coach Norv Turner] last year about trying to get together in some type of scrimmage format," Ravens coach Brian Billick said yesterday. "But given the predisposition of their former ownership toward Baltimore -- us being here -- it just made it prohibitive."

Whether it's playing pickup basketball games at the White House, watching college basketball on an aircraft carrier or seeing his brother-in-law's Oregon State Beavers take on Towson University, it's clear President Obama loves sports. It was even more impressive the way he jumped out of his seat and helped honor the Towson football team at halftime of the game. The pictures were great. It probably drove the Secret Service guys crazy. More than a few earpieces were squawking when he did that.

Maryland athletic director Debbie Yow confirmed Wednesday night that the school is in negotiations with Notre Dame for a 2011 game at FedEx Field in Landover. "We are in discussions with them," Yow wrote in an e-mail to The Baltimore Sun. "I really can't say more without compromising the negotiations." It would mark only the second time the football programs have met. The Terps, then ranked No. 21, lost, 22-0, to the Fighting Irish at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., to open the 2002 season - Ralph Friedgen's second in College Park and Tyrone Willingham's first in South Bend, Ind. Friedgen will be going into his 10th season in 2010 while Notre Dame recently hired Brian Kelly away from Cincinnati to replace Charlie Weis.

It was late Saturday night and defensive tackle Joe Vellano was asked to think back to the lofty expectations Maryland had harbored in September as it entered a new season with a new coach. Vellano exhaled. "Oh, I know," he said softly, contemplating how the early-season promise had faded. Ten weeks ago, the Terps — coming off a 9-4 year — opened a season in which they believed they could compete for the Atlantic Coast Conference championship. Maryland (2-8, 1-5 ACC)

I think we can all agree that most NFL preseason games are huge snoozefests, not to mention a gigantic rip-off for the poor season-ticket holders who pay full price to mainly watch a bunch of second- and third-string fat guys push each other around for three hours. But at least the Ravens' second preseason game against the Washington Redskins on Saturday at FedEx Field has a few interesting subplots going for it. Maybe the top one is this: Donovan McNabb will start at quarterback for the Redskins.

Penn State was picky in choosing game film to study Indiana. The Hoosier horror flick that was the 83-20 defeat last week to Wisconsin was tossed aside to focus on what Indiana did right its two previous games, losses to Iowa and Northwestern by a combined eight points. That's the team coach Joe Paterno thinks the Nittany Lions (6-4, 3-3 Big Ten) will face when the schools meet Saturday at FedEx Field in Landover, Md. "I watched it when it was … Wisconsin was ahead 30, 40 points and then I didn't waste time looking at it," Paterno said.

The Washington Redskins urged Maryland's highest court Thursday not to force the team to pay workers' compensation benefits to its former wide receiver Darnerien McCants, arguing that the claim involving his injuries belongs in Virginia, where the NFL team is based. "There's no question that by far, the bulk of his work activities occurred in Virginia," David O. Godwin, a lawyer for the football team told the Court of Appeals, saying that the team offices and training facilities are in Ashburn, Va., and that McCants is "forum-shopping" for benefits.

The U.S. men's national soccer team will play Brazil in a May 30 friendly at FedEx Field in Landover, the five-time World Cup champion's first visit to the Washington area since 1998 and the Americans' debut at the Redskins' stadium. The game will begin at 8 p.m. with TV coverage on ESPN2 and Univision. Tickets, ranging from $40 to $135, will go on sale next Friday via Ticketmaster and ussoccer.com. D.C. United's full-season ticket holders will receive advanced access. The United States has defeated Brazil once in 16 meetings, the victory coming in a 1998 Gold Cup match in Los Angeles.

President Obama will travel to Cambridge on Friday to address the House Democratic issues conference, The Sun has learned. The three-day Democratic conference begins Wednesday and is similar to the Republican retreat held in Baltimore last week. Vice President Joe Biden will also address the group, the White House has said. Obama last came to Maryland for an official event in July. He spoke to University of Maryland students in a town hall setting at College Park during last year's debt limit debate.

Whether it's playing pickup basketball games at the White House, watching college basketball on an aircraft carrier or seeing his brother-in-law's Oregon State Beavers take on Towson University, it's clear President Obama loves sports. It was even more impressive the way he jumped out of his seat and helped honor the Towson football team at halftime of the game. The pictures were great. It probably drove the Secret Service guys crazy. More than a few earpieces were squawking when he did that.

Marc Firlie calls comparisons between football and warfare a cliche. But he says the challenges of playing football at the U.S. Naval Academy — on top of a full academic course load and year-round military training — really did help prepare him for his work on board a guided-missile cruiser helping to enforce the no-fly zones over Iraq after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. "You don't really appreciate it — or like it — when you're 17,"...

The scene that played out before Navy began football practice Monday afternoon in Annapolis was different than other moments during the past four years when Jabaree Tuani tried to motivate his teammates. Depending on Tuani's position in the pecking order of team leaders, the 6-1, 265-pound defensive end has spent much of his career encouraging or castigating, his words and body language usually fitting perfectly to the circumstance surrounding the Midshipmen. This time, as Navy (4-7)

The list of Maryland players who went from being burgeoning stars to malcontents to former Terps grew again Wednesday, when sophomore tailback D.J. Adams announced that he had been granted his release from the school. Adams, who as a redshirt freshman scored 11 mostly red-zone touchdowns for former coach Ralph Friedgen, played infrequently under first-year coach Randy Edsall after being suspended from the season-opening victory over Miami for violating an unspecified team rule. After gaining 239 yards on 67 carries as a freshman -- including scoring four times for the 9-4 Terps in their Military Bowl victory over East Carolina in what turned out to be ACC Coach of the Year's last game -- Adams carried only 40 times for 167 yards and four touchdowns for Edsall's 2-10 team.

It turns out that redshirt sophomore quarterback Danny O'Brien was not the only Maryland player injured in Saturday's 45-21 loss to Notre Dame at FedEx Field. O'Brien's broken bone in his nonthrowing arm will sideline him the rest of the season, but an unspecified injury to linebacker Alex Twine will keep the promising freshman out of Saturday's game at Wake Forest. Twine was the ACC's Freshman of the Week after making 12 tackles against the Fighting Irish. Maryland coach Randy Edsall said during his teleconference Thursday that the Terps will travel to Winston-Salem, N.C. with only 60 players, including walk-ons.