PRO FOOTBALL DAILY REPORT : AROUND THE NFL : Arbitrator Reduces Fine, Suspension of Dickerson

Team owner Robert Irsay and Indianapolis Colt Coach Rick Venturi said Wednesday they had no problem with a mediator’s decision to reduce the suspension and fine of running back Eric Dickerson to three games and about $225,000.

Sam Kagel, a San Francisco lawyer serving as an NFL arbitrator, determined that the original suspension of four games and fine of $617,000 was too harsh.

The decision “took us down a little but he proved the point that we were right, and that’s the big thing,” Irsay said. The Colts had claimed Dickerson’s walkout last week and refusal to return to practice constituted insubordination and conduct detrimental to the team.

“We just aren’t going to tolerate that,” Irsay said. “We pay the players a lot of money and they’ve got to practice and they’ve got to follow the rules. That was our whole point.”

Said Venturi: “I feel good about it. The bottom line is you do what you feel is right.”

The Colts and Dickerson released a joint statement, which read: “In mediating the settlement, arbitrator Kagel did not determine the propriety of the Colts’ fine and suspension. As part of the settlement Eric agreed not to return to the Colts until Nov. 25, 1991, and to pay the Colts $75,000 from his 1991 salary and $150,000 from his 1992 salary.”

Dickerson missed last Sunday’s game against the New York Jets, the Colts’ first victory of the season.

Three of Dickerson’s teammates--Jeff Herrod, Irv Pankey and Clarence Verdin--also testified during the hearing at San Francisco.

“I’m not involved. I went out and spoke what was on my mind. It was a five-minute ordeal,” Herrod said. “The way things look, all that stuff is behind us. . . . I was upset myself. I didn’t think I was involved. Yesterday was my off day and I had so much stuff to do. I spent at least seven hours on a plane.”

Said Verdin: “I was distressed about flying out there for just five minutes. It wasn’t a player against management type of thing. It didn’t make any sense. . . . I don’t know what he (Dickerson) thought we were going to say. We just went in there and told the truth.”