PRO FOOTBALL / DAILY REPORT : NFC : Cowboys’ Haley Says He’s Retired

Charles Haley, the star defensive end of the Dallas Cowboys, said Monday he will retire because he has a ruptured disk in his lower back, the Dallas Morning News reported Tuesday.

“My career is over. I’m through,” Haley told the newspaper. “I’m not depressed because I’ve had a good career and I did it my way.”

Haley, 31, needs only 3 1/2 sacks to become the 12th player to record 100. He had retired before this season, but owner Jerry Jones lured him back with a big contract. He had 10 1/2 of Dallas’ 28 sacks this year.

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For the privilege of having a second NFL team, Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening promised $73 million in road improvements, securing a deal with Washington Redskin owner Jack Kent Cooke to build a stadium just inside the Capital Beltway in Maryland.

The agreement among Glendening, Cooke and Prince George’s County Executive Wayne Curry brings the Redskins one step closer to a new 78,600-seat stadium in Landover, five miles from RFK Stadium.

It still requires legislative approval by the County Council and the Maryland General Assembly.

But the project is not expected to falter in the County Council, which has already once voted in favor of changing zoning laws to accommodate Cooke, who wants the stadium to open in 1997.

However, some neighborhood residents have already filed suit to overturn the county’s zoning decision.

The deal--which commits the state of Maryland to paying for road improvements, off-site storm water management and some on-site costs--may end Cooke’s years of looking for a suitable place in which to situate a stadium he will build with $180 million of his own money.

Talks had appeared stalled after Cooke seemed certain to win a Prince George’s County deal. But he and the state were waiting for Curry to make a financial commitment.

Unlike the $200-million deal the state signed to bring the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore next season, the agreement with Cooke relies on significantly less money, $50 million of which Glendening administration sources say is available in the state’s road improvement fund.

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Quarterback Dave Brown is annoyed the New York Giants have not offered him a new contract and he says he will join another team if the right offer comes along in the off-season. Brown, who will become a free agent at the end of the season, said he would consider being a backup.