Sunday, April 18, 1999Smith vows he won't hold out
BY GEOFF HOBSON
The Cincinnati EnquirerThere has never been a bigger laugh in the Bengals' media room than when Akili Smith was asked what his agent had told him about his dealings with Cincinnati.
“I guess Mike Brown, he's kind of tight,” Smith said.
But Smith also vowed, “No way possible,” when asked about a holdout. “First thing I'm going to talk to Mr. Brown about is trying to get this deal done and get it over with as quickly as possible.”
It must be Draft Weekend. Brown and super-agent Leigh Steinberg are again dialing for dollars. When the Bengals picked Smith third, it marked the fourth time in eight drafts the club had chosen a Steinberg client in the top six.
But it was the first time it meant another Steinberg client got the ax. Brown told quarterback Neil O'Donnell on Thursday that if the club took a quarterback, he would be released early this week.
“I don't think Neil's bitter over that,” Steinberg said.
O'Donnell couldn't be reached for comment.
The Bengals gave O'Donnell $17.25 million over four years and will save $1.5 million against the salary cap by waiving him. But that won't help them in the $4 million rookie pool that pays Smith's gargantuan salary.
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Just tweak No.1 pick Tim Couch's contract and you get an idea what it will cost to sign Smith. The Browns gave Couch $12.25 million to sign a seven-year, $48 million deal that voids after three years. If the Browns want to buy back the remaining four years of the deal, they have to pay him $8.75 million. If he hits all his incentives, the deal can be worth $59.5 million.
“The fact there is already a signing at the top, I think that means we don't have to go into June or July to get it done,” Steinberg said. “Plus, the top three are quarterbacks, so I can see it going quickly, like we did with Dan (Wilkinson).”
Brown hasn't been tight late ly with rookies.
Wilkinson got a $5 million signing bonus two weeks after being the No.1 pick in 1994. In 1995, running back Ki-Jana Carter missed only a few days of training camp as another No.1 pick who got $7.1 million to sign.
Steinberg joked he and Brown were identical twins in another life, since they've done so many big contracts during their lifetimes. He also knows his three previous clients never realized their potential here. David Klingler and Wilkinson aren't even here, and one of the reasons Carter is still around is because he's too expensive to cut.
“Hope springs eternal,” Steinberg said. “Akili is filled with energy and vitality. He'll think of that as a chance to turn things around and make it better rather than going to a losing team.”
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