Wednesday, August 27, 1997
The University Daily Kansan
Section B·Page 5
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49ers sign linebacker for $13 mil
The Associated Press
The San Francisco 49ers, a team that has made a habit of plugging aging stars into an aging team, yesterday added Kevin Greene, the NFL's 1996 sack leader.
The 49ers and Greene, cut Sunday by the Carolina Panthers, reached agreement on a six-year deal worth $13 million. Only $350,000 of the deal will count against the 49ers' salary cap.
Greene also had been sought by the Cincinnati Bengals and Miami Dolphins.
San Francisco has used players such as Greene in the past - Deion Sanders, Rickey Jackson and Richard Duckett.
Last — Delon Sanders, Rickey Jackson and Richard Dent all 104 were hired by Dent 1994.
were hired guns on the 1994
Super Bowl champions.
Because the 49ers play a 4-3
defense, Green probably
would be used as a third-down pass rusher. Stopping the run is not his strength.
Cincinnati wanted Greene to provide experience at linebacker in its new 3-4 defense.
Without Greene, Cincinnati will use first-round draft pick Reinard Wilson, who was a defensive end at Florida State.
Greene, who had 14 1/2 sacks last season, is 55. He had been seeking to renegotiate a contract with Carolina worth between $1 million and $1.6 million this season, depending on incentives.
If Greene plays out this contract, he will be 41 when it ends, an unheard-of age for any NFL player but a quarterback or kicker.
But he won't.
Greene's agent, Leigh Steinberg, ensured that Greene would receive most of the money up front without hurting the team's salary-cap situation.
The contract contains a $750,000 signing bonus and a
$200,000 base salary this season.
There also are $550,000 in incentives and a $1.75 million base salary for next season, not including a $250,000 workout payable in March.
Earlier this summer, Steinberg, who has nine clients on the 49ers, renegotiated a deal for quarterback Steve Young that would pay Young, 36, $10 million next season.
Steinberg could renegotiate some of his other players if the 49ers need help fitting Greene under the cap. Elsewhere in the league, teams continued to make minor adjustments to rosters to fill holes.
The Dallas Cowboys released defensive lineman Leonard Renfro and were seeking a veteran linebacker to fill out an inexperienced group of five linebackers.
The New York Giants terminated guard Lance Smith, a 13-year veteran, to open a spot for a cornerback.
The Giants, who started the week with four cornerbacks, were down to two after starter Phillippi Sparks was diagnosed with viral hepatitis and backup Conrad Hamilton underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee.
Packers plan repeat of Super Bowl win
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Last season Green Bay Packers coach Mikc Holmgren banned the words "Super Bowl" from his players' vocabularies.
The Associated Press
This year, he has done nothing of the sort.
In fact, he talks about repeating every day.
"I'm never going to stop talking about it," Holmgren said. "I went up to each of my stars and said, 'Is one ring enough?'
After beating New England in the Super Bowl in January, the Packers have a chance to become part of the NFL's all-time elite. Five teams have won successive Super Bowls, but only the Pittsburgh Steelers have accomplished the feat twice
With one repeat already (Super Bowls I and II), the Packers could join that exclusive club in Januarv.
The Packers completed their first unbeaten, untied exhibition season in 30 years and enter their opener Monday night against Chicago with an incredible swagger.
"The Chicago Bulls pretty much know they've got it won every year. That's the way we want to be," LeRoy Butler said.
Butler, the strong safety who leads the team in experience and ebulence, said during training camp that the Packers could complete the NFL's first
The Packers do not think that notion means they are overconfident.
"My quotes are going to be different from everybody else's. They'll all say, 'Oh, we need to work on this, work on that.' That's bull," he said. "We just need to maintain, and we'll be all right."
Holmgren said: "We do feel that we can win every time we go out. I don't think that's a bad thing. In fact, I know it's a good thing."
unbeaten season in 25 years.
Two-time MVP Brett Favre said: "I'm not saying we'll win every game. But I don't think anybody will sneak up on us because we think we're too good."
Antonio Freeman, who emerged as a rising star during Brooks' absence, said the team had a right to be confident.
"We want to completely dominate teams," he said. "We want to stand out when our name is mentioned."
Vikings seek success
Team pulls together,aims to erase disappointments
The Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS—The excitement from his promising start in 1992-93 is long gone. The claims of off-field impropriety are fresher, yet those unpleasant memories are fading, too.
"You think about that in January, and that's it," he said in the middle of preparations for his sixth season. "Once February starts, it's a whole new season. ... It's not part of my thought process at all."
Dennis Green faces a nagging legacy with the Minnesota Vikings. He never has won a playoff game in his five seasons as head coach.
How much do the disappointment and hurt grow? A proud, private man, Green never tells.
No one blames Green for not wanting to look back, but this summer, he has had an even better reason for forgetting the past: The future is promising.
Coming off an injury-plagued 9-7 season that ended with a 40-15 playoff loss to the Cowboys, the Vikings have as much speed
and depth as at any time since Green took over.
The Vikings lack experience, are thin in the secondary and face a demanding schedule that begins with four of the first six games.
the first six games on the road.
But the team hopes this will be the season Green gets rid of his reputation as a playoff loser. He probably has to to see another season as coach — despite a contract that guarantees him a paycheck, if not a job, through 1998.
"People say, 'Are we trying to save Denny's job?' No," said quarterback Brad Johnson. "It's more wanting to play for Denny. He's very organized, he communicates with us and he has a great respect level for us. You want to play for Denny."
"When you look at the last couple of years, we started out good and then we hit a decline. But every year's been an improvement," said third-year defensive end Derrick Alexander, who has recovered from a hip injury that limited him in the second half of 1996. "My first year we were 8-8. Last year we were 9-7. This year could be a 10-6 or an 11-5, and that's good enough to get you into the playoffs. And once you get there, then it's just a whole new ball game."
Pirates finishing strong at season's end
The Associated Press
PITTSBURGH — The low-budget Pittsburgh Pirates were compared to the Mets when the season began — Casey Stengel's 120-loss Mets of 1962.
Now, after another miraculous finish in a highly illogical season, the high-drama Pirates again have the look of the Mets — the Miracle Mets of 1969.
"Everything is like out of a movie — I mean 'Angels of the Outfield' or something," said Pirates outfielder Al Martin.
Held to one unearned run in 15 innings and down to their final
two outs, the Pirates rallied on successive homers by Joe Randa and Mark Smith off Todd Worrell to beat the Dodgers 4-3 Monday and split their doubleheader.
The victory kept the Pirates three games behind Houston in the National League Central. The two teams play five times in the final week of the season.
"It was another storybook finish in a storybook season," Randa said. "I think we're all running out of words to describe what's happening to us this season."
a division title during a season in which the they were for casted to lose 100 games
The Pirates' unexpected run at
They gutted their roster, trading all but one player making as much as $1 million and replacing seven of nine starters from their opening-day lineup.
would seem to be dramatic enough.
Manager Jim Leyland left for Florida to manage a winner.
Now, the Pirates are wondering if they are destiniy's darling.
ing if they are destiny's darling. Smith's homer might have been the most dramatic in a Pirates' pennant race since Barry Bonds helped secure the 1991 National League East title with a game-winner off the Cardinals' Lee Smith.
Smith, cast off by both Baltimore and San Diego within the last year, has seven homers, nearly all of the homers critical.
"You get to the point where it's hard to describe what's happening to us," Randa said.
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