Career of Cardinal Lineman Dye, Injured in Crash, Might Be Over

Arizona Cardinal offensive lineman Ernest Dye, who nearly had his right arm amputated after his car rolled over, will never play professional football again, team officials said Tuesday.

Officials said Dye’s arm, crushed in an automobile accident Monday that also injured two of his teammates, will likely never heal sufficiently to allow him to return for his sixth year in the NFL.

“There’s just no way he’ll be back,” one team official, who asked that his name not be used, told Reuters. “No way.”

Extensive surgery to repair Dye’s right arm produced a pulse on Tuesday, prompting doctors to upgrade his condition from critical to serious.

“Ernest’s situation is day to day, then week to week,” said Dr. Jerry Mohr, one of the surgeons who operated on Dye, 28, for more than eight hours in Flagstaff, Ariz.

Doctors reconnected the bone between the shoulder and elbow, then repaired nerves, arteries, veins and other tissue.

Defensive end Carl Simpson and offensive guard Lester Holmes were treated and released with minor injuries.

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Dimitrius Underwood, the first-round draft pick from Michigan State who left the Minnesota Vikings training camp and was later released, was arrested and briefly held in East Lansing, Mich., on a warrant over a parking ticket, campus police said.

Underwood, 22, was arrested about 2:20 a.m. on the Michigan State campus along with an unnamed passenger for traffic warrants pending against them, said Lt. John McCandless of the campus Department of Public Safety.

Underwood paid a $150 fine and was released from the city jail, Lansing police said.

Meanwhile, Underwood, wavering between football and the ministry, talked by telephone with Miami Dolphin Coach Jimmy Johnson and will decide today whether to join the team after it claimed him off waivers, his agent said.

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The Washington Redskins confirmed that they are close to a contract agreement with wide receiver Irving Fryar, 37, that would bring him out of retirement.

Fryar, who had 48 receptions for the Philadelphia Eagles in 1998, retired in the off-season.

Meanwhile, new Redskin owner Daniel Snyder, less than two months after buying the team, is expected to put his personal stamp on the franchise next week by removing the name of late owner Jack Kent Cooke from the stadium and renaming it Redskins Stadium--at least until the naming rights are sold.

He also plans to abolish the use of “Raljon,” the name Cooke--in a tribute to his sons, Ralph and John--gave to the land on which the stadium is built.

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Searching for more consistency on long field goals, the Philadelphia Eagles waived kicker Chris Boniol and signed veteran Norm Johnson to a two-year deal.

Last season, Johnson was 26 of 31 overall and 11 of 14 from 40 through 49 yards. Boniol was seven of 20 from 40-49 yards the last two seasons with the Eagles.

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Three cars leased by Miami Dolphin receiver Tony Martin for a longtime friend are among more than $1.3 million of unaccounted wealth the friend amassed over a four-year period, an IRS agent testified in Miami.

IRS special agent Ron Wise listed the cars among nearly three dozen big-ticket acquisitions Rickey Brownlee made between his November 1993 release from prison and his January 1998 arrest.

Wise classified Martin as a “nominee owner” in the deals, saying he was used as a way to help conceal Brownlee’s wealth. At the time, Brownlee was reporting to his probation officer an income of some $1,800 a month, he said.

“He would have to earn about $26,000 a month to maintain that level of spending,” Wise said.

Martin is being tried alongside Brownlee, who served seven years in prison for two 1980s drug convictions, in a case largely focusing on Brownlee’s alleged narcotics activities from 1995-97.

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The Cleveland Browns packed up their equipment, boarded buses and went on their shortest trip of the season--just up the road from their training camp in Berea, Ohio to play in their brand new home.

The players got to practice in the new 72,000-seat Cleveland Browns Stadium for the first time, a dress rehearsal before a crowd estimated at 25,000 for Saturday night’s exhibition game against the Minnesota Vikings.

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At the urging of his critically ill mother, New York Giant Coach Jim Fassel has returned to the team. Since Thursday, Fassel had maintained a round-the-clock vigil at the bedside of 76-year-old Dorothy Fassel, battling a serious kidney ailment at an Arizona hospital. . . . The Indianapolis Colts signed former Denver running back Vaughn Hebron. . . . The Baltimore Ravens signed quarterback Stoney Case. . . . Tennessee Titan defensive end Kenny Holmes will be out at least 10 days after undergoing arthroscopic surgery to repair a flap of cartilage in his left knee.