The Next Step Is The Hardest

THE NEXT morning some of the Browns' brass were having second thoughts about the offer for Rogers. Millen had responded to Savage by saying he had other teams interested, but was that the sort of white lie G.M.'s told when they were trying to get more out of a deal? " Millen's bluffing," one of Savage's aides told him. Late in the day Savage called Millen to say he'd keep Bodden in the trade but wanted to switch to a lower draft choice.

"We had a deal!" said Millen, who was somewhere between angry and livid. "I won't do it for less than that."

Said Savage, "Let me sleep on it."

A restless night for Savage: It was as if half of his brain reminded him he had to have Rogers to fix a horrible run defense, and the other half told him a third-rounder and Bodden was too much to pay. (And besides, it seemed likely he would get Williams from Green Bay.) Such decisions define a G.M.'s career. By the time Savage went to sleep, he felt as if he were paying tricked-out Escalade money for a baseline SUV.

FEBRUARY 29
BEREA

ON HIS WAY to work, Savage called Millen. "It's too much for us," Savage said. "I think you're going to have to count us out." He hoped Millen's next words would be, "O.K., I'll take a fifth-rounder and Bodden." They weren't.

"Don't worry," Millen said brusquely. "I've got a deal with Cincinnati."

Savage's heart sank. Cincinnati! We lost Rogers to a team in our division!

Savage asked what the terms were.

"A three and a five," Millen said.