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NFL meets
with Jones and Henry
Penalties expected before the draft.
Published Wednesday, April 4, 2007
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and league officials met with Adam "Pacman" Jones yesterday as the Tennessee Titans’ cornerback attempted to avoid a long suspension after a series of arrests. Goodell and his staff also met with Cincinnati wide receiver Chris Henry and members of the NFL Players Association executive board as he prepared a tougher policy on NFL players who violate the law. Goodell has said he will announce his decision on suspensions or other disciplinary action before the draft April 28 and perhaps in the next 10 days. The NFL had no comment, and lawyers for the players had no immediate response. The meeting with the players was held away from the NFL offices where six television cameras stationed themselves with no one to interview. The Titans couldn’t add much either last night. "We have not heard anything from the NFL office," Titans General Manager Mike Reinfeldt said. Goodell also met with Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFLPA, and other union officials as he tried to get a consensus for his policy. Upshaw also has been critical of player misbehavior. Henry is one of nine Bengals who were arrested last season, leading to calls for a crackdown on player behavior. But Jones has become the focus for Goodell, who took over as commissioner in September and has been preoccupied by the issue almost from the start of his tenure. Since being drafted in April 2005, Jones has been arrested five times and questioned by police in 10 episodes. Last week, Las Vegas police recommended he be charged with a felony and two misdemeanors for his role in a Feb. 19 strip club fight that led to a triple shooting. ● BRIGGS STAYS PUT: Disgruntled linebacker Lance Briggs will not be moving from the Chicago Bears to the Washington Redskins, at least not in the immediate future, because the Bears rejected the Redskins’ offer to send their No. 6 overall pick of the NFL draft to the Bears in exchange for Briggs and the 31st pick, a team official said. Bears General Manager Jerry Angelo has talked with Redskins officials, who said Monday night their offer of the swapped draft choices was final. The Bears were unwilling to part with Briggs, despite his threatened holdout in protest of the Bears tagging him as their franchise player. The Redskins were unwilling to increase their offer. The two teams are expected, however, to have additional contact before the April 28-29 draft. ● ADIOS, OLINDO: The Miami Dolphins traded kicker Olindo Mare to New Orleans yesterday for a 2007 sixth-round draft pick. Mare became expendable last month when the franchise signed former New York Giants kicker Jay Feely as his replacement. But the Dolphins refused to immediately cut Mare even after he publicly asked for his release because the franchise was hoping to trade him. "We had a lot of discussions with several teams," Dolphins General Manager Randy Mueller said. "We were waiting until the right deal was there. We felt this was the right time." Rather than release Mare, Mueller said the Dolphins wanted to "get some value" after paying him a $250,000 roster bonus before Feely was signed. A six-year NFL veteran, Feely made 84.1 percent of his field goals the past two seasons. ● MORE CAMERAS: The NFL will allow more local television stations to cover games from the sidelines next season under a policy change prompted by complaints from broadcast media. Lawmakers in Missouri and Arizona had challenged an NFL policy, adopted last season, that booted most local video cameras from the sidelines. Instead, TV stations were required to get sideline footage from a pool photographer or use the network television clips. Broadcast stations complained the policy prohibited them from zooming in on particular players for feature stories that would be of interest to their local audiences. Under a change in policy, the NFL now plans to allow up to 10 local TV cameras - generally five from each teams’ media market - on the sidelines of games for its 2007-08 season. The change was approved last week by NFL teams at a conference in Phoenix and announced at a Missouri Senate hearing on legislation targeting the former policy.
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Copyright © 2007 The Columbia Daily Tribune. All Rights Reserved.
The Columbia Daily Tribune
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