NFL: Urlacher considering test free-agent waters

Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher said in a radio interview Friday he is considering testing the free-agent market after this season.

"I think (team president) Ted Phillips said when they had the owners meeting they're gonna wait until the season is over. See what happens, how I play (before addressing the contract situation)," Urlacher said Friday on Chicago station ESPN 1000. "It's kind of exciting. I've never been a free agent. So if I can get to free agency we'll see what happens.

"I no doubt want to finish my career here. There's no doubt about that. But you bring in free agency and all that you just never know what's gonna happen."

Urlacher, who turned 34 on Friday, will become a free agent after this season. He is in the last year of a five-year extension he signed in 2008. According to the NFLPA, he will earn a $7.5 million base salary and, because of his pro-rated bonus, his salary-cap number will be $9.7 million.

The 12-year veteran suffered a major knee injury at the end of the last game in 2011. He has participated in some recent offseason team activities.

"The Bears know I want to be here. I've told them that. I've said it publicly, and that's not gonna change," he said. "Whatever happens during the season or after the season, we'll address it then. But they know I want to be here, and I think they want me here."

--Former NFL kicker Mike Vanderjagt may lose his job as a part-time middle school football coach after an alleged confrontation with a student.

Vanderjagt reportedly grabbed the student by the throat at Charter Middle School in Marco Island, Fla., after the student was taunting him, the Naples News reported Friday.

The nine-season NFL veteran will have his future employment decided by the school's principal, after a vote of the charter school board.

According to police records, Marco Island Police responded to a call from the school March 12 that an adult male grabbed a student by the throat. The report said one student was taunting Vanderjagt by yelling "wide left, wide left."

Vanderjagt was one of the NFL's most accurate kickers, but he missed a field goal wide right late in the AFC Divisional playoff loss for the Indianapolis Colts on Jan. 15, 2006 to the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was released by the Colts that offseason.

The police report said that Vanderjagt, a school parent and volunteer, overheard the comments when walking through the parking lot. A student alleged Vanderjagt walked up to him, grabbed him by the throat and started cursing at him. The story was corroborated by another student.

The former NFL star denied to the police putting his hand on the student's throat and said the child had been taunting him for months. He said in the report he put his hand on him only to hold the child in place while he talked to him. He said the school's principal was in the vicinity during the incident. The principal told the authorities he was nearby but did not see the incident.

The state's attorney's office reviewed the case and no charges were issued against Vanderjagt. He has since been suspended from coaching, as per school policy during investigations.

--Controversial actor Charlie Sheen denied on Friday that he was the online-auction winner of Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor's Super Bowl XXV ring.

Taylor and his agent Mark Leipselter were informed Wednesday night Sheen had the winning bid, Fox Sports reported Friday.

However, the former star of "Two and a Half Men" indicated that he was not the buyer.

"As much as I would be honored to own such an important artifact ... I had nothing to do with the acquisition," Sheen said through rep Larry Solters, according to the New York Daily News.

The Super Bowl ring was sold for $230,401 on Sunday. Online auctioneer SCP Auctions did not announce the name and location of the winning bidder.

The auction was won with the 30th bid.

The ring was given by Taylor to his son, Lawrence Taylor Jr. Fox Sports reported last week that Lepselter said the linebacker did not know his son had put the ring up for auction. However, the auction listing said the elder Taylor was fine with the decision.

The ring auction gained more attention Friday when current Giants lineman Osi Umenyiora said he would buy the ring if his Twitter account reached 500,000 followers. However, as of Sunday morning his account was just above 54,000 followers.

--The NFL's labor talks with its referees toward a collective bargaining agreement reportedly will go to federal mediation.

The league and its referees association have agreed to allow the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to help negotiate their labor talks, the Washington Post reported Friday.

The deal between the league and the NFL ends this month. Both sides have said there isn't one issue holding up the deal. NFL Referees Association executive Tim Millis recently denied the sides were at an impasse.

The league has begun looking for replacement referees should the sides fail to make a deal, according to Fox Sports. The NFL last used replacement referees at the start of the 2001 season.

The FMCS previously mediated the negotiations between the NFL and the players' union before the players were locked out during the 4 1/2-month impasse last year.

--The Bengals signed the second of their two first-round picks, offensive guard Kevin Zeitler, to a four-year deal with a fifth-year option.

Zeitler, the 27th overall pick, was the second offensive guard drafted in 2012. The Steelers drafted David DeCastro 24th overall.

Zeitler, an All-Big Ten pick at Wisconsin, lined up as the starting right guard at organized team activities last week.

The Bengals' other first-rounder, cornerback Dre' Kirkpatrick, signed May 18.

--All that a new Minnesota Vikings stadium needs now is a shovel in the ground.

The Minneapolis City Council on Friday voted to approve funding for a football / convention center facility, the final hurdle necessary to building a new downtown home for the Vikings.

The final vote was 7-6, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, ending a push for a new stadium that lasted nearly a decade.

Minneapolis will subsidize about $309 million of the stadium with the state and the Vikings paying for the rest. It will cost about $957 million to build. The Minnesota legislature approved state funding earlier this month.

"It's one of those tough decisions that you need every generation or so to keep a city moving forward," Mayor R.T. Rybak told the Star Tribune. "But it's also based on ... something I've had to deal with from the start, which is to clean up the city's finances, and I think we did that."

The stadium is scheduled to be built on the footprint of the Vikings' current home, the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, which is located on the east side of downtown Minneapolis. The vote also approves funds to renovate Target Center, the home of the Minnesota Timberwolves that is located on the west side of downtown Minneapolis.

The city's mayor now must appoint two people to the stadium authority committee.