The Nfl

Ricky Williams is used to being cheered for his ability to run with the football. But last Friday, after he signed an incentive-laden seven-year contract with the Saints that could be worth anywhere from $11.1 million to $68.4 million, Williams was being hailed for his blue-collar sensibility. While receiving relatively minuscule base salaries ranging from $175,000 to $400,000, Williams will get huge bonuses, such as $1.5 million in any year he gains at least 1,600 yards. There's a fascinating kicker too. If in four years Williams reaches three of the four benchmarks that the Broncos' Terrell Davis has established in his first four NFL seasons—rushing yards (6,413), rushing average (4.8), combined rushing-receiving yards (7,594) and points (372)—the Saints will match the salary terms of the final four years of Davis's contract. Last summer Davis signed a nine-year, $56 million deal, the richest ever given to a running back.

Player agents and representatives of the NFL Players Association will bemoan the fact that Williams didn't get enough in base salary, but if Williams plays like Ricky Heisman, he'll be the game's highest-paid runner. ( Williams's contract includes an escalator clause that would kick in if Davis signs an extension or someone else signs a more lucrative deal.) If Williams plays like Ricky Flopman, he'll be paid accordingly. Now that's the way sports contracts should be structured.

Williams pushed his agent, Leland Hardy, to get the deal done quickly so he could start the Saints' off-season training program this week—and so he could invest the portion of his $8.84 million signing bonus that is payable immediately ($3.6 million; the rest comes in 2000) in the bull market.

At first Hardy pushed for a voidable-years deal similar to what most of the highly drafted quarterbacks have gotten in recent years, but Saints negotiator Terry O'Neil told him the club would never trade eight draft picks—as New Orleans did—for a player it might have for only three years. Then Hardy tried to duplicate the terms of the contract signed last year by Cardinals defensive end Andre Wads-worth, whose salaries of $8 million, $10 million and $12 million in the fourth, fifth and sixth years would kick in if Arizona's defense improved even infinitesimally in his rookie year, which it did. O'Neil declined, telling Hardy, "That contract means that a rookie with five sacks jumped over every defensive end ever in salary" Then O'Neil offered the Davis option, which was hashed out and agreed upon after some tinkering with incentives.

One such clause carries more weight than the others. The Saints were concerned about Williams's self-discipline after he weighed 244 pounds (up from the 225 he played at last season) at the NFL scouting combine in February and also by Williams's admission that after he got back down to 225 for an April workout, he swallowed 11 doughnuts. They were further taken aback when the 5'10�" back polished off a rich Cajun dinner and followed it with four desserts at a get-acquainted dinner before the draft. So O'Neil insisted on one of the league's strictest weight clauses: The club can weigh Williams regularly from March through December, and when he's at 240 pounds or more, New Orleans can fine him $25,000, up to $100,000.

Next Year's No. 1 Pick?
Louisville Passer Has a Shot

After meeting prized Louisville quarterback Chris Redman at a banquet last year, Brett Favre invited him to play in his tournament. The 21-year-old Redman wound up winning the closest-to-the-pin contest, putting his tee shot two feet from the hole on the par-3 12th. The payoff: a $16,000 bass fishing boat Before Redman accepted his prize, however, Favre suggested that he check with the NCAA to make sure he wasn't putting his college eligibility in jeopardy. Redman's dad, Bob, whipped out a cell phone, called the NCAA and got the O.K. for Chris to keep the boat (The NCAA allowed it because the tournament was open to the public.)

A fifth-year senior who has started 27 games at Louisville, Redman has passed for 8,894 yards and thrown for 55 touchdowns. A great season would make him a leading candidate to be the first pick in the 2000 draft. Scouts think the 6'3", 225-pounder has a stronger arm than Tim Couch, the Kentucky quarterback who went to the Browns with the first pick in last month's draft.

NFL teams should love Redman's toughness, too. He broke his throwing hand in the first half of an eighth-grade game but refused to leave the game until it was won. Last year he took 12 stitches under his chin without Novocain at halftime of a game and played two quarters of another with a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee.