NEW ORLEANS — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league needs to make football safer by doing more to eliminate blows to the head and knees and by suspending players for illegal hits.

During his annual news conference two days before the Super Bowl, Goodell also said he wants a “new generation” of the Rooney Rule because “we didn’t have the outcomes we wanted” when none of 15 recent coach and general manager jobs were given to a minority candidate.

Goodell hopes and expects testing for human growth hormone to start next season, even though the league and the players’ union are still at an impasse after 18 months of back-and-forth.

He vowed to be “relentless” about keeping pay-for-pain bounties out of the game.

NBA union chief on indefinite leaveNEW YORK — NBA players put union chief Billy Hunter on an indefinite leave, two weeks after a report they commissioned questioned Hunter’s leadership and criticized him for bad decisions and questionable business practices.The union is forming an interim executive committee and an advisory committee, the group’s president, Derek Fisher, said in a statement. An outside attorney is also being hired as players begin moving forward, likely without the man who has guided them since 1996.

Yankees ink Hafner to 1-year contractNEW YORK — Travis Hafner and the New York Yankees agreed to a $2 million, one-year contract that allows him to earn up to $4 million more in bonuses based on plate appearances.Limited by injuries the past five seasons, the 35-year-old gives the Yankees a designated hitter with power potential from the left side of the plate. He essentially takes over the role filled last season by Raul Ibanez, who signed a $2.75 million, one-year deal with Seattle.