Lions now involved in Green talks

PHOENIX – Kansas City Chiefs president Carl Peterson spoke with Detroit Lions president Matt Millen on Tuesday about a possible deal for quarterback Trent Green. However, Peterson said he hasn't spoken with Miami Dolphins general manager Randy Mueller very much at the NFL owners meetings about a deal for Green.

"But we haven't been in many of the same meetings since we've been here," Peterson said as the last of the meetings ended Tuesday.

Miami and Kansas City have been in discussions about making a deal involving the veteran quarterback since the Chiefs informed Green earlier this month that he needed to take a pay cut.

If Green ends up in Detroit, he would be reunited with offensive coordinator Mike Martz, his coordinator and head coach with the St. Louis Rams. The Dolphins have offered only a seventh-round pick for Green. The Chiefs are looking for closer to a second-round pick for the 37-year-old Green, although that seems an unlikely price for anyone to meet.

Peterson said it's likely that not much will get done on the Green front until closer to the NFL draft.

"That's the way it usually works with these things," Peterson said. "You usually need something to force the action and the draft is it."

In 2005, Peterson waited until just before the draft to complete a trade with Miami for cornerback Patrick Surtain. Likewise, the Chiefs didn't trade for Green until days before the 2001 draft.

As for Green, he had averaged 23 touchdowns, 13 interceptions and more than 4,000 yards passing in the previous four campaigns prior to last season. However, limited to eight games last year after suffering a concussion in the season opener against the Cincinnati Bengals, Green threw seven touchdowns and nine interceptions.

BUSH PARTY CANCELLED

Two NFL sources said that New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush had a recent "Casino Night" Party derailed by the league after it got wind of the idea. Bush was scheduled to hold the party, which was organized by marketing agent Mike Ornstein, in San Diego.

Although Ornstein told sources that the league wouldn't have a problem with the party, it did because of the association with gambling. Bush quickly cancelled the event.

GROWING WEARY

Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher endured another long round of questions Tuesday morning about troubled cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones, who is scheduled to meet with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in New York on April 3.

By the end of the hour-long session with the media, Fisher was on the verge of exhaustion with the subject and said wearily: "I just want to wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night without [Jones] being the first and last thing I think about."

Jones, whose two years in the NFL have been marred with arrests and other off-field mishaps, is facing possible felony and misdemeanor charges for his involvement in a shooting at a strip club following the NBA All-Star Game in Las Vegas last month.

RICKY'S RETURN

Dolphins running back Ricky Williams is expected to apply for reinstatement to the NFL shortly, agent Leigh Steinberg said Monday night. However, don't expect the move to go quickly. Williams will have to either provide evidence that he has been drug tested regularly or submit to approximately three months worth of tests before the NFL will clear him.

Williams was suspended for one year in April 2006 after testing positive for a unknown banned substance under the NFL's drug policy. Previously, Williams had tested positive four times for marijuana.

Although the Dolphins have been quiet about Williams' return, Steinberg said he talked with Mueller recently and said he got the distinct impression that the Dolphins wanted to have Williams play for them again.

Mueller was the GM in New Orleans in 2002 and traded Williams to the Dolphins.

OT CHANGES?

The NFL owners are expected to vote on a change in the overtime rule today when they consider a series of rules from the league's competition committee. Among the changes is a rule that would move the kickoff in overtime games from the 30- to the 35-yard line. The hope is that moving the kick up, it would alter field position and change the large advantage afforded to the teams that win the coin toss.

Over the past 12 years, teams that have won the toss have won the game 63 percent of the time on the first possession.

However, Peterson said he's a strong advocate of having each team get a possession in overtime. If the game is still tied, it would then become sudden death. Peterson said the best evidence for his idea is that the NFL currently uses that format in NFL Europe and the results have been more balanced.

"We have a rule that works already in a league we run, let's use it," Peterson said. "This is one of the reasons that we have NFL Europe, to look at those rules and see what's effective."

REDSKINS INTERESTED IN BRIGGS?

Agent Drew Rosenhaus had disgruntled Chicago Bears linebacker Lance Briggs take a tour of the NFL owners meetings and, if the rumor has any basis in fact, may have sparked some interest from the Washington Redskins.

By Monday night, after Briggs had met with several teams, the hot rumor floating around the league meetings was that Redskins owner Daniel Snyder was ready to trade the No. 6 overall pick to Chicago for the rights to Briggs and the Bears top pick, the No. 31 overall selection.

Briggs was declared a franchise player by Chicago this offseason and has said several times that he has no intention of playing for the one-year tender of $7 million.

Bears general manager Jerry Angelo, who has publicly stood firm on his stance of not trading Briggs, wasn't buying the rumors.

"I'm not buying that until I hear it straight from the horse's mouth," Angelo said.

Snyder went out for dinner with Washington coach Joe Gibbs on Monday night and was not available for comment. However, Rosenhaus said that he spoke earlier with Angelo on Monday night and was told that the Bears would not be giving Briggs anything more than a one-year deal. That puts the sides at obvious conflict.

BILLS BACKING AWAY FROM BROWN, DILLON

Buffalo Bills GM Marv Levy said his team may reconsider signing running backs Chris Brown or Corey Dillon at a later date, but prefer to go with another plan at running back. The Bills traded RB Willis McGahee earlier this month to the Baltimore Ravens, receiving a third- and seventh-round pick in next month's NFL draft and a third-rounder next year.

Brown, 26, played in only five games last season with the Tennessee Titans after enduring two years of a contentious relationship with then-GM Floyd Reese. A source close to Brown, a third-round pick by Tennessee in 2003, said that the relationship between Brown and Titans coach Jeff Fisher is friendly, so a return to Tennessee is possible as well. Brown rushed for a career-high 1,067 yards on 220 carries (4.9 yards per carry) in 11 games in 2004 before running into problems with Reese.

As for Dillon, he was granted a request for his release by the New England Patriots at the start of free agency so that he could pursue a starting job with another team. Dillon, 32, is living in Malibu, Calif., and is considering whether to play or retire.

Dillon rushed for 812 yards on 199 carries last season with the Patriots as he split time with rookie Laurence Maroney. Dillon also scored 13 touchdowns and has at least 12 touchdowns in each of the past three seasons. In 2004, he rushed for a career-high 1,635 yards.