Saturday, July 24, 1999
Tagliabue: Mack will play this year
Penalty will be less than year suspension
BY GEOFF HOBSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The Bengals learned Friday that safety Tremain Mack will be available to play sometime this season.
Bengals President Mike Brown said the club was told after Mack's two-hour meeting Friday with NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue in New York that Mack won't be suspended for the entire year.
Tagliabue said Mack could participate in training camp until he makes a ruling sometime in August on Mack's series of alcohol-related offenses in three different states.
“That's good, and until then we'll wait for what the commissioner decides in the next few weeks,” Brown said.
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said Tagliabue reviewed with Mack his status under the league's substance abuse policy. Mack twice violated the policy with DUIs in 1997 and 1998 in Hamilton and Clermont counties with charges that resulted in nearly five months of jail.
Mack, 24, also faces a possible four months in jail during the offseason in another case in Texas. His representatives have argued that all the judges have opted for probation instead of taking away Mack's job, and that one more offense will bring enough punishment because it means jail.
Mack was accompanied by Bengals lawyer Mark J. Ruehlmann while Tagliabue was flanked by NFL medical director Richard Spatafora and representatives of the NFL management council.
“From what I understand, the meeting went well in the respect that Tremain had a chance to say what he wanted to say,” said David Levine, Mack's agent. “Tremain communicated quite well what he wanted the commissioner to know.”
Last season, Mack, a fourth-round pick in 1997 out of Miami (Fla.), set Bengals season records for kickoff return yardage and average per return. He is the club's No.1 returner on the depth chart, where he is also the fourth right cornerback.
• The Bengals made a roster move Friday when they cut college free agent Phillip Moore, a running back out of North Dakota.
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