CARDINALS NOTEBOOK
Ohalete settles dispute with Portis
By DARREN URBAN TRIBUNE
CONTACT WRITER:
(480) 898-6495 or [email protected]
****Darnell Dockett wears No. 90 for the Arizona Cardinals, but he doesn’t have to.
****"If someone wanted to come in now and pay a couple hundred thousand for this 90, they can have it," Dockett said.
****Making a deal for a number never got more ink than in the case of Dockett’s Cardinal teammate, Ifeanyi Ohalete, who "sold" then-teammate Clinton Portis the No. 26 in Washington last June for $40,000.
****Portis paid $20,000 up front but refused to pay Ohalete the balance after Ohalete was cut by the Redskins in August. Both players had signed a makeshift contract in front of a Redskins trainer, and Ohalete filed a civil lawsuit against Portis in December.
****The case had been scheduled to go to trial today. Instead, the suit was settled Monday, when Portis agreed to give Ohalete $18,000. Ohalete would have had to fly to Washington for the trial.
****Ohalete has repeatedly declined to talk about the case, including Friday when asked about the upcoming trial. Cardinals players were gone for the day Monday when the settlement was reached.
****The Cardinals aren’t strangers to a difficult situation with jersey numbers. In 2003, running back Emmitt Smith signed and the team gave him No. 22 during the introductory press conferences, even though cornerback Duane Starks was wearing the number and hadn’t been consulted. Starks wasn’t happy — he remained upset through the end of his Arizona tenure — although he eventually switched to No. 28.
****Safety Adrian Wilson, who wears 24 now, wore No. 22 during his rookie year of 2001 when cornerback Tom Knight wore Wilson’s preferred No. 24.
****"Tom Knight didn’t want to switch since I was a rookie and I didn’t have enough money to pay him," Wilson said.
****Wilson probably wouldn’t have paid for it anyway. He got 24 the next year when Knight left, and he would decline an offer to sell it.
****"I like 24," he said. "People know me by 24 now."
****NEW FULLBACK
****The Cardinals signed fullback and special teamer Harold Morrow to a one-year deal. Morrow, who played under coach Dennis Green in Minnesota, is entering his 11th season in the NFL after spending the past two seasons in Baltimore. Morrow’s arrival gives the Cardinals the maximum 87 players allowed on the roster, with seven NFL Europe exemptions.
****Bringing in the 5-foot-11, 232-pound Morrow likely means it will be that much harder for fullback James Hodgins — who missed all of last season with a shoulder injury — to make the team behind top fullback Obafemi Ayanbadejo.
****EXTRA POINTS
****The Cardinals realigned their scouting department Monday. Jim Carmody and Bob Mazie retired, and the team hired Malik Boyd and Don Corzine to replace them. Steve Keim will now scout players nationally, while Boyd, Corzine and holdovers Lonnie Young, George Boone, Bill Dekraker, Jerry Hardaway and George Belu will all be area scouts. . . .
****ESPN’s "Rome is Burning" television show used Wilson as a correspondent Monday, with Wilson as first-person host for the day. The segment is supposed to air sometime in the next three weeks.
****"I’m trying to get into my second career," Wilson said. "I want to take advantage and do the best job I can."
Ohalete settles dispute with Portis
By DARREN URBAN TRIBUNE
CONTACT WRITER:
(480) 898-6495 or [email protected]
****Darnell Dockett wears No. 90 for the Arizona Cardinals, but he doesn’t have to.
****"If someone wanted to come in now and pay a couple hundred thousand for this 90, they can have it," Dockett said.
****Making a deal for a number never got more ink than in the case of Dockett’s Cardinal teammate, Ifeanyi Ohalete, who "sold" then-teammate Clinton Portis the No. 26 in Washington last June for $40,000.
****Portis paid $20,000 up front but refused to pay Ohalete the balance after Ohalete was cut by the Redskins in August. Both players had signed a makeshift contract in front of a Redskins trainer, and Ohalete filed a civil lawsuit against Portis in December.
****The case had been scheduled to go to trial today. Instead, the suit was settled Monday, when Portis agreed to give Ohalete $18,000. Ohalete would have had to fly to Washington for the trial.
****Ohalete has repeatedly declined to talk about the case, including Friday when asked about the upcoming trial. Cardinals players were gone for the day Monday when the settlement was reached.
****The Cardinals aren’t strangers to a difficult situation with jersey numbers. In 2003, running back Emmitt Smith signed and the team gave him No. 22 during the introductory press conferences, even though cornerback Duane Starks was wearing the number and hadn’t been consulted. Starks wasn’t happy — he remained upset through the end of his Arizona tenure — although he eventually switched to No. 28.
****Safety Adrian Wilson, who wears 24 now, wore No. 22 during his rookie year of 2001 when cornerback Tom Knight wore Wilson’s preferred No. 24.
****"Tom Knight didn’t want to switch since I was a rookie and I didn’t have enough money to pay him," Wilson said.
****Wilson probably wouldn’t have paid for it anyway. He got 24 the next year when Knight left, and he would decline an offer to sell it.
****"I like 24," he said. "People know me by 24 now."
****NEW FULLBACK
****The Cardinals signed fullback and special teamer Harold Morrow to a one-year deal. Morrow, who played under coach Dennis Green in Minnesota, is entering his 11th season in the NFL after spending the past two seasons in Baltimore. Morrow’s arrival gives the Cardinals the maximum 87 players allowed on the roster, with seven NFL Europe exemptions.
****Bringing in the 5-foot-11, 232-pound Morrow likely means it will be that much harder for fullback James Hodgins — who missed all of last season with a shoulder injury — to make the team behind top fullback Obafemi Ayanbadejo.
****EXTRA POINTS
****The Cardinals realigned their scouting department Monday. Jim Carmody and Bob Mazie retired, and the team hired Malik Boyd and Don Corzine to replace them. Steve Keim will now scout players nationally, while Boyd, Corzine and holdovers Lonnie Young, George Boone, Bill Dekraker, Jerry Hardaway and George Belu will all be area scouts. . . .
****ESPN’s "Rome is Burning" television show used Wilson as a correspondent Monday, with Wilson as first-person host for the day. The segment is supposed to air sometime in the next three weeks.
****"I’m trying to get into my second career," Wilson said. "I want to take advantage and do the best job I can."
