AROUND THE NFL : Now Fryar and Dykes Are Socked by Patriots

Getting hit outside a nightclub cost Irving Fryar and Hart Lee Dykes an estimated $1,000 each in fines. It cost their team, the New England Patriots, another chunk of its crumbling reputation.

“We’re going through a long season,” Dykes said. “We’re not winning right now and we have some other things going on and that’s not good. This is not the type of thing we needed.”

At about 1:20 a.m. last Wednesday, Dykes was struck in the left eye outside the Club Shalimar in Providence, R.I., after he and a man he identified as a club bouncer allegedly exchanged words.

Fryar suffered an eight-stitch gash in his head as he reportedly went to help his teammate. He later was charged with carrying a 9-millimeter handgun for which he reportedly had a Massachusetts permit but not one from Rhode Island.

Dykes and Fryar are the Patriots’ starting wide receivers. Dykes complained Monday of blurred vision in his left eye and was expected to miss Thursday night’s game at Miami.

While Fryar and Dykes may have been victims, Coach Rod Rust said they were fined for missing team meetings and practice later that day. The team said the fines were identical. Each was believed to be about $1,000.

“Anything that happens off the field is a distraction to the team,” Fryar said. “That might be one of the reasons why Coach Rust is fining us, because it was detrimental to the team.”

Rust said “it’s implicit” in the fines that he frowns on players staying out late when they have to go to work the next morning.

The incident followed by less than three days New England’s fourth loss in its five games this season and by 23 days a locker room incident in which Boston Herald reporter Lisa Olson said she was sexually harassed by four or five Patriot players.

New York Giants outside linebacker Carl Banks will undergo surgery on his left wrist today and probably miss the next six games, according to a published report.

Banks was scheduled to undergo surgery at 10 a.m. today to relieve pain in his wrist caused by a nerve pressing against a bone, the Star-Ledger of Newark reported.

Banks led the undefeated Giants with 18 solo tackles through their first four games, but dislocated his wrist on Sept. 30 in a 31-17 victory over the Dallas Cowboys. After a week off, Banks’ wrist was placed in a cast and he played only on obvious passing downs in Sunday’s 24-20 victory over the Washington Redskins.

Nine-year veteran Johnie Cooks will replace Banks in the starting lineup, the paper said.

Quarterback Don Majkowski, who leads the NFL with 10 interceptions, has been forcing passes, according to a Green Bay Packers official.

“The difference between this year and last is the running game and Don Majkowski is a little more anxious to try to get something going,” Packers Vice President Tom Braatz said Monday. “Thus, the 10 interceptions.”