PRO FOOTBALL / DAILY REPORT : AROUND THE NFL : Cardinal Offer to Simms Rejected

Phil Simms apparently won’t be playing quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals. At least not yet.

Simms’ agent, David Fishof, said the Cardinals made an offer that has been rejected.

“The salary cap put Phil Simms out of football and probably will keep him out,” Fishof told NY 1, a new York cable station.

Confirming that the Cardinals had called to talk about Simms, Fishof had earlier told NY 1 that “an offer has been made.”

“I still don’t know anything, and I still haven’t talked to anybody from out there,” Simms said from his home in Franklin Lakes, N.J. “If somebody wants to contact me, I will listen.”

Simms, a commentator for ESPN, said he hadn’t spoken with Fishof on Friday.

In an interview last Wednesday, Simms said he couldn’t envision returning to football now, and on Friday, he said he hadn’t changed his mind.

“There’s nothing that could make me go back to playing right now. I’ve stepped away,” Simms said.

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A grand jury in Cincinnati has decided not to indict Deion Sanders on a felony charge for his confrontation with a police officer at Riverfront Stadium.

Sanders, who was playing for the Cincinnati Reds and is now with the San Francisco 49ers, was then indicted on a first-degree misdemeanor of failing to comply with a police officer’s order. The Hamilton County grand jury’s decision was a setback to police who wanted the two-sport star prosecuted on a felony.

“We’ve said all along it didn’t happen the way the city said it did and that came out in the grand jury,” said James Keys, Sanders’ attorney.

Sanders was arrested Aug. 8 and charged with misdemeanor counts of failing to provide a driver’s license and resisting arrest during a confrontation with an off-duty Cincinnati police officer working as a guard at Riverfront Stadium.

Sanders, who pleaded innocent to all charges, faces up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine on the one misdemeanor count, but jail time is extremely unlikely.

Wide receiver Mike Pritchard of the Denver Broncos was listed in serious condition with a possible ruptured kidney Friday night. Pritchard, who noticed blood in his urine, was rushed to Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Hospital at about 8:30 p.m. CDT by an ambulance responding to a 911 call, hospital spokesman Brad Bawmann said. Doctors took X-rays and performed a CAT scan to pinpoint the problem. There was no indication if the condition was football-related. . . . Running back Harold Green has been fined a reported $4,000 for skipping two days of practice without the Cincinnati Bengals’ approval to attend a friend’s funeral. Green won’t start Sunday against the Houston Oilers because he missed important practice time, but will play.