Bengals Settle With NFLPA by Cutting Pickens

The Cincinnati Bengals terminated the contract of Carl Pickens on Thursday, parting company with the player who holds team records for career and touchdown receptions.

Making Pickens, 30, a free agent was part of Cincinnati’s settlement with the NFL Players Assn. over the team’s use of the “franchise player” designation.

The NFLPA dropped its grievance against the Bengals, team officials said. In exchange, the team will have use of a “transition player” tag--right of first refusal--in 2001, but not the franchise player designation. For 2002 and following years, the team will again be able to have a franchise player.

Pickens vowed to never play for the Bengals again after they used the franchise tag on him after the 1998 season. After sitting out training camp, Pickens signed a one-year contract.

The club then gave him a five-year, $23 million deal, but Pickens responded with one of his least-productive seasons, criticized the decision to bring Coach Bruce Coslet back for 2000 and demanded a trade when the season ended.

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An agreement by Kansas City allowing guard Dave Szott, 32, to go home to New Jersey each Monday and Tuesday during the season has persuaded him to play one more season and finish his career with the Chiefs.

Szott, a Pro Bowl player, has a son with cerebral palsy, and he and his wife have decided a school near his home in Passaic, N.J., is the best place for him.

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Carolina’s wooing of retired pass rusher Reggie White is heating up. The Panthers received permission from Green Bay to talk with White, and several Carolina players said the NFL’s lifetime sacks leader recently told them he was considering playing again. Panther Coach George Seifert said the team had been contacted by White’s agent. White, 38, played his 14th and supposedly final season in 1998. He finished with 192 1/2 sacks. . . .

The Oakland Raiders and first-round draft pick Sebastian Janikowski have agreed to terms on a contract worth about $6 million over five years, but the parties wouldn’t sign because they were still trying to smooth out fine points of the deal. Janikowski, the highest-drafted kicker since 1979, has been arrested twice since the end of his last season at Florida State. . . .

The St. Louis Rams signed first-round draft pick Trung Canidate, a running back from Arizona, to a five-year contract. Most valuable player Kurt Warner reported to camp without a contract. . . . The Miami Dolphins signed Daryl Gardener to a seven-year extension worth $50 million, making him one of the richest defensive tackles in the NFL. . . .

Tennessee Titan rookie safety Aric Morris was hospitalized in Nashville after experiencing a blood clot in his arm on the first day of training camp. . . . Andre Reed, 36, NFL’s second all-time leading receiver with 941 catches, signed with Denver after spending his entire 15-year NFL career with Buffalo. The Broncos also signed cornerback Terrell Buckley, who played at Miami last season. . . . The Baltimore Ravens reached agreement in principle on a one-year contract with tight end Ben Coates, 30, who made five Pro Bowls while with the New England Patriots. . . . Denver and Jacksonville emerged as the front-runners to sign defensive tackle Eric Swann.