PRO FOOTBALL DAILY REPORT : NFC : 49ers Can’t Get Deal Done With Stokes

Five hours of negotiations between the agent for top draft pick J.J. Stokes and San Francisco 49er executives failed to result in a contract agreement.

“Our [latest] proposal was not what he was looking for, but it may be all we can do,” General Manager Dwight Clark said. “Bottom line, we’re doing everything we can to get him into camp.”

The 49ers want to wrap up the negotiations with Stokes so they can turn their attention to unsigned all-pro defensive tackle Dana Stubblefield.

Like Stokes, Stubblefield’s holdout has become a source of increasing irritation and concern.

“Initially I felt it would just be a matter of boom, boom and it’d be done and away we go,” Coach George Seifert said. “But this one, I’m getting a little more uncomfortable with.”

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Five years ago no one wanted John Randle. He didn’t weigh enough. He wasn’t tall enough.

What they forgot to measure was the size of his heart.

The Minnesota Vikings gave Randle a chance as an undrafted rookie free agent in 1990, and he became one of the best defensive tackles in the NFL. On Wednesday, the Vikings rewarded him with a two-year contract extension worth $6.3 million, a deal his agent said makes him the highest-paid tackle in the game.

“When I think about it, it kind of makes me laugh a little bit,” Randle said, recalling his first days as a Viking. “To come in as a free agent, it was scary. You think you don’t have a shot at it, and once you do achieve it you say to yourself, ‘Some things in life you can achieve.’ ”

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The Arizona Cardinals got wide receiver Rob Moore back but temporarily lost Garrison Hearst, whose potential allowed Coach Buddy Ryan to trade his starting tailback to the New York Jets for Moore.

Hearst missed training camp in 1993 because of a holdout and missed camp the next year because of an injury. He made it four practices into his first camp this year before straining the big toe on his right foot.

Moore missed Monday’s opening of camp to stay with his wife for the birth of their first child and stayed an extra day because of complications.

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A week into training camp, top draft pick Rashaan Salaam remained unsigned and absent, and the Chicago Bears targeted today as an important day in negotiations.