PRO FOOTBALL / DAILY REPORT : AFC : Foster Abruptly Leaves the Bengals

Two days after signing a $1-million contract, Barry Foster changed his mind and left the Cincinnati Bengals.

The former three-time Pro Bowl running back with Pittsburgh surprised the Bengals and his agent by quitting and leaving town Thursday.

Foster, 26, out of football since the Carolina Panthers released him before the season, complained he felt like “a 60-year-old running back” after his first workout in pads with the Bengals on Wednesday.

He told Bengal Coach Dave Shula on Thursday morning that he had lost his desire to play. He returned his reported $300,000 signing bonus to the Bengals, checked out of his hotel room and left.

“He told Dave he had changed his mind, that he’d decided football was over for him,” said Bengal President Mike Brown, Foster’s biggest booster on the team. “From our standpoint, it’s disappointing to work through something like this and then have it end so abruptly.

Foster returned home to Dallas and will hold a news conference this morning to discuss why he quit, his agent, Jordan Woy, said.

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The $4,000 fine levied against Denver Bronco linebacker Dave Wyman for hitting Oakland Raider quarterback Jeff Hostetler was increased to $12,000 as the battle between the teams continued to flare.

“We were able to get more angles on the play,” AFC information director Leslie Hammond said. NFL officials reviewed the tape after Hostetler, who missed a game and a half after getting hit in the throat, complained to the league office and Gene Washington, the league’s director of football development.

“After reviewing it again, Gene decided that increasing the fine was appropriate.”

Wyman was not suspended because he already sat out three quarters of the Oct. 16 game, Hammond said.

Bronco receivers Mike Pritchard and Anthony Miller and Raider cornerback James Trapp were fined $5,000 each for a separate brawl.

Meanwhile, Raider running back Harvey Williams accused the Broncos of greasing the football during Denver’s 27-0 win against Oakland.

“I’m not going to make any excuses. They came out and they beat us. But the field was watered down. The ball had Vaseline on it,” Williams said on ESPN’s interview show, “Up Close.”

Raider receiver Tim Brown seemed to echo those sentiments.

“I’ve never been in a game where holding onto the ball was so difficult,” said Brown, who had only three catches that night. “Even the balls I happened to catch, it was just a real concentrated effort to hold onto the ball. I don’t know if it was a case of humidity and altitude or whatever, but there was something going on with that ball.”

Bronco Coach Mike Shanahan, a former Raider coach, merely laughed off the accusations.