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Tagliabue feeling the pressure
Posted: Sunday December 26, 1999 01:34 PM
Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King chatted with CNN/SI's Bob Lorenz about the goings-on in the NFL entering Week 16 of the regular season: Bob Lorenz: Orlando Brown was released from the hospital Friday afternoon. Doctors are uncertain about the future of his sight in the damaged eye. The league has suspended him, but I'd say this situation is far from over with... Peter King: No question about it. Here's what's going on at the NFL level. This week commissioner Paul Tagliabue convened his kitchen cabinet to talk to them about the Orlando Brown's situation. They were getting a lot of pressure from Cleveland, from Carmen Policy and Al Lerner, saying that the circumstances here were very unusual, the guy hurt his eye. Tagliabue was getting ready to give Brown a two- or three-game lesser suspension until one of his cabinet members pointed out that Bears quarterback Jim Miller got four weeks for taking a diet pill laced with a steroid. Can you give Orlando Brown less of a suspension? You can't do it. So they decided on an indefinite suspension; they'll meet again in February to decide the matter further. Orlando Brown has already had his representatives tell the league, "Listen, preserve all the evidence, including the flag, because depending on what happens here, we're going to institute legal action against the NFL." One other thing the NFL has to be careful about now is its officiating union, which has been a largely docile group. The officials union has basically told the league, "We want you to come down hard on Orlando Brown." I talked to a member of the officials union this week; he is not pleased at all, nor are his brethren, that the league has come out with this indefinite ban. As the union member told me, the problem here is that there are no rules for this. There is nothing set in stone. The NFL has to put down penalties so that if a player does anything to an official, first time, second time, whatever, it has to be laid down what the penalty is going to be. Lorenz: Tennessee defensive end Jevon Kearse is headed for the Pro Bowl and is at or near the top of everyone's list for defensive rookie of the year. It seems as if the Titans are the envy of the league for taking him in the draft... King: I cannot believe Jevon Kearse was picked 16th overall in the draft for this reason. When they were doing timing and testing at the University of Florida last spring, they did intervals on the 40-yard dash. Kearse ran the fastest 10-yard interval in the 40 that scouts had seen in 15 years, since they had been doing this kind of interval testing. What do you need out of your pass rusher? You need a guy who's great for the first 10 yards going for the quarterback. Lorenz: The 49ers are a team in turmoil, from the top on down. What we're hearing from Bill Walsh is that Jerry Rice might well be playing in his last home game ever for the Niners Sunday. What's the latest? King: I think a lot of people view Walsh as the Grinch who stole Christmas for 49ers fans, but he's just being realistic. The 49ers have to come to grips with the fact that if Steve Young and Jerry Rice are both on their team next year, it's going to be a tremendous drain on into the future. The 49ers are already $19 million over next year's salary cap; they must cut one of these guys this coming offseason, start to take their medicine, so that this team can get rehabbed. The x-factor here is that Steve Young wants to -- and he's told people in the organization this -- quarterback this team on opening day next year. So the 49ers right now would love Rice to go out and retire, or go out and maybe play somewhere else. People inside the 49ers do not want to see Jerry Rice come back next year. Lorenz: The Cowboys playoff hopes took a huge hit with their loss to the Saints on Friday. Deion Sanders, in fact, even said that he may quit if he doesn't think there's any hope for a championship in their future. What's the future of head coach Chan Gailey? King: A lot of people have thought since Norv Turner is on such thin ice in Washington that Chan Gailey would be ousted if he didn't make the playoffs this year and that Jerry Jones would then hire back Turner, his former offensive coordinator. After Friday's game Jones effectively ended all that speculation when he said that Gailey was not part of the problem in Dallas and that he will be back next year. Lorenz: The Cowboys' loss might have been Mike Ditka's gain. Despite just four wins in the last 21 games, Ditka keeps saying he'll be back. But what do the Saints say? King: Interestingly, this week Mike Ditka told his players that he will definitely be back next year. In fact, he also criticized some of the players internally for the first time since he entered this slide. In front of a team meeting he told Ricky Williams, "Ricky, you were late for the bus last week. You're going to be fined." Williams, in fact, missed the team bus and had to have a police cruiser take him to the game in Baltimore. Ditka is really upset with Williams -- it may not have shown this week -- but that's a sign, a lot of Saints watchers think, that Ditka could very well come back. A source inside the Saints organization tells me that nothing has been decided yet and that at the end of the season owner Tom Benson will meet with both Ditka and general manager Bill Kuharich to decide their fates. Lorenz: That win by the Saints over the Cowboys means that the Browns, who picked first in last year's draft, will have the first pick again. We know they won't be looking for a quarterback, so what will they be looking for? King: The key thing about Cleveland's hopes with the No. 1 pick next April is what they're going to do in free agency. The top guy on their board is going to be Simeon Rice, if the Cardinals don't slap the franchise tag on their great defensive end. If it's not Simeon Rice, if the Browns get an offensive player in free agency, either Jacksonville running back James Stewart or New England wide receiver Shawn Jefferson, they could go after Penn State's Courtney Brown with the pick. If they get defensive help in free agency, look for them to go with Florida State wide receiver Peter Warrick.
Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL and appears regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN's NFL Preview.
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