Mark Curnutte

He has entered the television business full time.

His main gig this fall will be to work with Don Criqui on one of the B-list CBS broadcast crews. O'Donnell said he figures to get about eight games of broadcast work.

"It's just something I've looked into over the years," said O'Donnell, who told the Patriots that he was "pretty much done."

O'Donnell, 37, also will do some guest analyst work for the CBS affiliate in Nashville and has been covering Titans minicamp.

1999 QB CLASS: Now that the Packers have signed Tim Couch, it's interesting to go back to 1999 and see how Green Bay rated the quarterbacks.

Couch, who played at Kentucky, was the first overall choice of the draft by the expansion Cleveland Browns - who released him earlier this month.

Ron Wolf, the Packers general manager from 1999-2001, didn't spend a lot of time studying quarterbacks Akili Smith, Donovan McNabb, Daunte Culpepper, Cade McNown and Couch because Green Bay had an in-his-prime Brett Favre.

But Wolf didn't enter that draft without an opinion on each QB.

"I think (Couch is) really good," Wolf said a month before the 1999 draft. "He gets out of trouble. He knows where the open guy is. I think he's the No. 2 guy."

For the record, Wolf rated McNabb as best in the group and listed Smith, whom the Bengals drafted No. 3 overall that year, as having the best chance to flop.

Wolf was right on both counts.

LIFE AFTER FOOTBALL: Scott Norwood, who missed the field goal from 47 yards in the final moments of Super Bowl XXV, is alive and well.

The miss did not ruin Norwood. It did not cause him to contemplate suicide, as was a rumor. But, yes, he did turn down interviews and stay out of the public eye in the years immediately following his release from the Bills shortly after Super Bowl XXVI in 1993.

But his seclusion had more to do with him wanting to get on with his life rather than the missed field goal. Norwood, 43, has built a successful career as a financial adviser and real estate agent in suburban Virginia.

But his passion is his three children, all of whom are under 10.

GOOD CAUSE, BAD IDEA: The Ultimate Sage Rosenfels Football Experience quickly became an unpleasant one for Miami's third-string quarterback.

Rosenfels issued a press release 10 days ago, saying he was available to make paid personal appearances for such events as bar mitzvahs, birthdays and Monday night football parties.

Since then, what Rosenfels thought would be a novel way to capitalize on his minor NFL celebrity status for charity has been criticized by the media and teammates as "a cheesy, flaky thing."

Rosenfels had hoped to keep the exact reasons for his involvement private. But amid growing damage to his reputation, he decided to reveal his intention.

Rosenfels' 33-year-old sister, Jaia, remains wheelchair-bound after a 1992 auto accident, something of which not even his closest Dolphins teammates are aware.

Sage Rosenfels had hoped to donate any money raised to a center that helped his sister and related causes, such as creating a professional wheelchair basketball league in Fort Myers, Fla.

AFC NORTH: The sobering fact about the drug case against Ravens running back Jamal Lewis is how it could end one of the NFL's most promising careers.

Lewis is charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine and using a cell phone to set up a transaction. A conviction on either felony charge carries a potential 10-year prison sentence.

• In an attempt to replace rookie safety Sean Jones, their second-round pick, the Browns signed safety David Gibson - who ended the 2003 season with Tampa Bay. Jones is out for the season with an anterior cruciate ligament injury suffered in the recent QB camp.

• Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward said he wants a new deal, even though his contract has two years remaining, after Pittsburgh went against its long-standing policy and extended the contract of lame-duck quarterback Tommy Maddox by one year in order to give him a $2 million signing bonus.

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Written from notes contributed by NFL beat writers.

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