NEW YORK — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell apologized to the fans who fretted through three weeks of replacement officials calling their favorite teams' games.

“We are sorry to have to put our fans through that,” he said on a conference call about 12 hours after the league reached a deal to bring back the regular officials.”

Goodell insisted the timing of the deal was not a reaction to the outcry over “Monday Night Football.” The two sides had been in “intensive negotiations” the last two weeks, he said.

NEW YORK — The NHL has canceled the rest of the preseason, just a day before negotiations were set to resume in an effort to end the lockout.The league announced its second cancellation of preseason games in a two-sentence statement. NHL owners locked out players Sept. 16 when the collective bargaining agreement expired.The NHL had already called off all the exhibition games scheduled in September. The regular season is supposed to begin Oct. 11.

ELIZABETH, N.J. — The NBA is about to act in hopes of stopping the floppers.Spokesman Tim Frank said the league is finalizing procedures to deal with flopping, the art of falling down when little or no contact was made in an effort to get a foul call.Frank said the competition committee met two weeks ago and discussed plans that would go in place this season.