NFL Notes : Now, Does Testaverde Have the Bucs to Back Him?

Vinny Testaverde never has thrown an NFL pass in anger, but his contract with Tampa Bay, about $8.2 million for six years, is the third-most lucrative in the league--only Dan Marino and Jim Kelly make more.

The signing bonus reportedly is $2 million. Without it, Testaverde’s average salary is slightly over $1 million a year; with it, his average payment per year is about $1.37 million.

Some comparisons:

Lawrence Taylor, the NFL’s Player of the Year and defensive MVP, will make $900,000 next year.

Eric Dickerson, the offensive MVP, will make $341,000.

Phil Simms, the Super Bowl MVP, will make $700,000.

Bill Parcells, Coach of the Year and coach of the Super Bowl champions, will make $300,000, although he is close to signing a new, renegotiated contract with the New York Giants that should put him somewhere near Simms.

John Elway, the man chiefly responsible for Denver reaching the Super Bowl, will make $1 million and so will San Francisco quarterback Joe Montana, the MVP of the 1985 Super Bowl.

Testaverde and the Bucs reached agreement on the contract two weeks after the the close of an NFL owners’ meeting at which the majority of owners talked about cutting back on expenditures. One of the suggested items for retrenchment: getting rid of signing bonuses

On the other hand Kelly’s signing made a huge difference to attendance in Buffalo. Testaverde may well do the same for Tampa Bay, which makes him worth the money.

News Item: The New Orleans Saints are talking contract with Barry Word, the Virginia running back they chose in the third round of last year’s draft. Word never played for the Saints--he spent last season in jail, serving a six-month sentence for selling less than one kilogram of cocaine.

But will Word be permitted to play in a league which in the past has suspended players whose drug involvement got them in trouble with the law?

“I would think so,” says Jim Miller, the Saints’ assistant general manager. “It’s a little bit different in that in the other cases we’re talking about players that are in the league. This guy hasn’t been in the league.”

NFL spokesman Joe Browne says that if Word signs, “our office will subject the contract to an appropriate review.” Other NFL officials note that unlike the four players suspended four years ago after run-ins with the law, Word has already missed a year.

Todd Christensen, the Raiders’ tight end, on former teammate Gene Upshaw, president of the NFLPA:

“He’s a former player who has been there and appreciates what players go through. He’s a bulldog. He’s hard-nosed. He’s tough.

“He’s not glib, witty or eloquent. Like Moi.”

The NFLPA won the coin toss to start contract negotiations, meaning the first formal session will take place in Washington. The date is April 20, at which time each side will present its formal demands.

That session probably will be little more than an exercise in rhetoric. Like negotiations in any industry, the major issues will be decided late and the current contract doesn’t expire until Aug. 31.

One possible item of discussion: the union’s demand for concessions in return for its permission for the Denver Broncos and the Rams to play in London on Aug. 4. Commissioner Pete Rozelle says the union wants $80,000 to cover legal fees in its successful arbitration of his random drug-testing plan; the union won’t say what concession it wants.

Permission for the game is necessary because it’s the fifth exhibition game for both sides, one more than the collective bargaining agreement allows.

Three NFC East coaches--Bill Parcells of the Giants, Tom Landry of Dallas and Buddy Ryan of Philadelphia--didn’t attend the NFL owners meeting in Maui last month. Ray Perkins of Tampa Bay was the only other coach who wasn’t there.

Parcells, Landry and Ryan are all expected at the press meeting for NFC and AFC East coaches at a hotel in New York’s Times Square on Monday and Tuesday. So is Joe Gibbs of the Redskins, who said in Maui that he might not show up in New York--he complained that last year, the only reporter to talked to him was a Washington reporter who regularly covers his team.

“I didn’t have to go to New York to speak to her,” he said.

That wasn’t exactly true. Several reporters remember talking to Gibbs in New York last year.

On the other hand . . .

Once you’ve seen Maui what kind of encore is Times Square?