PRO FOOTBALL / DAILY REPORT : AROUND THE NFL : Buccaneers Finally Put Up for Sale

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, one of the most profitable franchises in pro football despite their ineptitude on the field, are for sale.

The future of the losingest club in NFL history has been the subject of rumors since the August death of former owner Hugh Culverhouse.

Two months after saying they were prepared to run the team indefinitely, the three-man trust appointed to oversee Culverhouse’s estate said Thursday that circumstances have changed.

The announcement came just days after Culverhouse’s widow, Joy, filed a $25-million-plus claim against her husband’s estate alleging she was pressured to agree to a property settlement in 1993.

Last week, the late owner’s son, Hugh Culverhouse Jr., filed a slander suit against trustee Stephen F. Story for posting a sign preventing family members from entering a condominium Culverhouse owned.

Culverhouse, who died Aug. 25 after a long battle with cancer, paid $16 million for the franchise which began play in 1976. Financial World magazine estimates the team, which has not had a winning season since 1982, is worth $142 million.

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Dallas wide receiver Michael Irvin was fined $12,000 as four players and a coach were fined a total of $43,000 by the league for their roles in a fight Monday night in the Cowboy-New York Giant game.

Irvin and teammate James Washington were involved in an incident in the end zone at the end of the first half, when Cowboy receiver Alvin Harper was injured. Irvin was fined for swinging a helmet at other players in the end zone; Washington was fined $10,000 for brandishing a monopod, a photographer’s stand.

Cowboy assistant coach Hubbard Alexander was fined $5,000 for “inflaming the situation.”

Two Giant defensive backs, Jarvis Williams and Jesse Campbell, were fined $8,000 each for fighting. They said they plan to appeal.