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Leaf's fall looks bright
Four months ago, Chargers quarterback Ryan Leaf sat in coach Mike Riley's office, depressed about the pain in his right shoulder. "I don't know if I want to play football anymore," Leaf told Riley. "I don't think my arm will ever feel right again." But after extensive rehab and a cautious summer throwing program, Leaf is on the verge of winning the San Diego quarterback job and shedding his bust label from the 1998 draft. He had an excellent third preseason game in Atlanta on Friday, completing his first nine throws. Riley told me on Saturday, "We have a major decision to make. But the guy with the most ability is playing the best right now." Whether it's Week 1, Week 3 or Week 5, Ryan Leaf will be the Chargers' starting quarterback in the year 2000. A fine messIt's getting down to D-Day, decision day for the NFL in the year-old San Francisco 49ers' salary-cap violation case. Former 49ers president Carmen Policy appeared before the league's management council last Tuesday to explain his side in the violation charges. A source in the meeting told me, "Carmen's points were not persuasive. He's trying to come up with ambiguities, not denials." I hear the NFL believes San Francisco is guilty of cap circumvention in the final 49er contracts of tight end Brent Jones and quarterback Jim Druckenmiller. Now the question is, how harsh will the penalties be? This situation is complicated by the fact that Policy and Dwight Clark, also charged in this case, are now running the Cleveland Browns' front office. Because the 49ers benefitted from the evasion, they'll get hit hard, and will quite possibly lose a second-round pick and one lower-round draft choice in 2001. Policy and Clark, meanwhile, could face the stiffest fines ever handed down by commissioner Paul Tagliabue. Ravens rally around LewisBaltimore coach Brian Billick tells me the $250,000 fine handed to linebacker Ray Lewis by the NFL has had a galvinizing effect on his team. The Ravens feel the fine is unjust and they'll use it as one more piece of us-versus-them motivation for the season. Look for Lewis to make one $125,000 payment to the league by month's end -- then he'll appeal to erase the second half of the fine. Lewis, however, is lucky. Most owners and even some players around the league believe he should have been suspended. The $3,500 mealThis past week Redskins tackle Chris Samuels experienced some of the rookie hazing all first-year NFL players usually go through. On Thursday night he had to take all the Washington offensive linemen out to dinner. "You've got guys ordering multiple beers and getting three shrimp cocktail appetizers," Samuels told me. "The bill came at the end of the night and everyone else had walked away. I looked down and it was $3,500." Good thing Samuels has a $10 million signing bonus to help him settle the check. Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL beat for the
magazine and appears each Sunday on CNN's NFL Preview. Come back and
chat with Peter on Wednesday, August 23 at 2:30
p.m. EDT.
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