PRO FOOTBALL DAILY REPORT : AROUND THE NFL : Player Sues: Racism Hurt Performance

Dolphins’ linebacker Bryan Cox, who said he was taunted by racist slurs by fans in Buffalo last season, is suing the NFL, charging racial discrimination made him a lesser player and prompted him to drink heavily.

“For the first nine games, you saw a Bryan Cox playing with emotion and kicking butt,” he said. “For the last five games I didn’t lose control of myself, you saw a person that was just out there.”

Cox was fined $10,000 by the NFL for responding to Buffalo fans with obscene gestures. NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue later reduced the fine to $3,000.

Cox was also fined $3,000 for unnecessary roughness against the Philadelphia Eagles and $5,000 for outbursts against the New York Giants.

Attorneys for Cox filed the suit Monday in U.S. District Court in New York City.

Cox charges that the NFL forced him to play in a “racially hostile environment” during the Bills-Dolphins game in Orchard Park, N.Y., and did little to defuse the situation, according to the Palm Beach Post.

“I’m not looking for money, but for a change in policy for what the league put me through last year,” Cox said. “It was handled very poorly and it has made me bitter toward them, enough for me to want to expose them for what they are.”

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Marshall Faulk vaulted to the top of the NFL’s rookie salary list Monday, agreeing to a contract that could be worth $17.2 million over seven years.

“I am a different type of back than they are used to seeing,” Faulk said. “I have enough speed to break a long one. I can catch the ball and run inside or outside with it. I think I can do just about anything that is asked of me.”

He joins a team that averaged a league-low 294.1 yards on offense last season. The Colts (4-12) also had the league’s least productive rushing game (80.5 yards) for the third consecutive year.

The Colts announced late Monday they had signed linebacker Trev Alberts of Nebraska, the team’s second pick in the first round and the fifth choice overall. The Indianapolis Star reported Alberts received a six-year, $8 million deal that included a $3.2 million signing bonus.

Faulk will receive a $5.1 million signing bonus and his total package eclipses the $14.4 million top pick Dan Wilkinson of the Cincinnati Bengals could receive over six years. Almost no NFL contracts are guaranteed for more than one season.

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Aaron Taylor, the Green Bay Packers’ top draft pick who is expected to be sidelined until December with a knee injury, agreed to a four-year contract. The deal with Taylor, a 6-foot-4, 300-pound offensive guard from Notre Dame and the 16th overall pick in the NFL draft, is believed to be worth about $4 million. . . . The New England Patriots said running back Marion Butts will be sidelined for at least two weeks after arthroscopic surgery to repair torn knee cartilage.