ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Just as his client did, agent Marvin Demoff objected Friday to the Bengals' use of a provision of the league's Collective Bargaining Agreement to pressure running back Corey Dillon into signing and reporting.

        The provision allows teams to put pressure on players to try to resolve a contract dispute by withholding pay from regular-season games, even after a deal has been signed.

        The Bengals said Dillon would be ineligible and would not be paid for the Sept. 10 season opener if he did not sign and report to training camp before Thursday.

        “I don't know what it is if it's not a threat,” Demoff said Friday night.

        The Bengals also said if Dillon didn't report in time to play in the third and fourth preseason games, he would be ineligible for the second and third regular-season games.

        “I guess if he objected to it being sent, that would not surprise me,” Bengals executive vice president Katie Blackburn said. “It has nothing at all to do with hardball. We just want to get him in. It's a provision ... that was put in for this very purpose.”

        Demoff said he and Dillon both reached out to the club this week. Dillon told a Bengals media relations employee that he wanted to get a deal done and get to camp and help the Bengals get on track.

        Demoff said he talked to team officials Wednesday and made arrangements to meet with them in Atlanta next Friday. He would be in town to talk with another client. The agent also said the team gave him no indica tion at that time it was going to file the CBA papers.

        “Based on that, there is no intention of meeting them in Atlanta,” Demoff said. “To my knowledge, no other team has ever used this except for the Bengals. I don't know if it's coincidence that they have the worst record since the CBA was enacted (in 1993).”

        Dillon wanted a multiyear deal with a base salary of $5 million a season. The Bengals offerred about $4.5 million a year with incentives that could have made the contract worth $5 million.

        When efforts to reach a long-term deal broke off, at tention turned to a one-year contract. The Bengals offered a $1.37 million tender until June 15. After Dillon didn't accept that offer, it turned into a 10-percent raise over his 1999 salary, which would pay him $553,000.

        The Bengals are playing the preseason with an inexperienced backfield, weakened further when Michael Basnight was lost for 8-10 weeks with a broken bone in his wrist.

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