Browns Lose Couch for the Season

His right arm wrapped nearly to the elbow, Tim Couch’s heart ached as badly as his broken thumb Friday while he watched the Cleveland Browns practice without him.

Couch fractured a bone at the base of his thumb while throwing a pass on the final play of practice Thursday.

He’ll have surgery shortly, and he was placed on injured reserve, ending the quarterback’s second NFL season after only seven games.

“It’s very frustrating,” Couch said. “You put so much time and so much effort into something. This is the toughest thing I’ve ever dealt with.”

Couch joined running back Errict Rhett, receiver JaJuan Dawson and guard Jim Pyne on injured reserve, which already included backup quarterback Ty Detmer.

“There are bumps in the road that test your shocks, and my shocks are getting a good workout,” Coach Chris Palmer said.

Couch will be replaced by Doug Pederson, an eight-year veteran who started nine games last season for Philadelphia but was booed incessantly by Eagle fans. Rookie Spergon Wynn will be the backup, with Kevin Thompson, signed Friday, as the third-stringer.

“It’s familiar ground,” said Pederson, signed Sept. 1 as insurance after Detmer tore an Achilles’ tendon. “I just hate to take over in this way. This is a tough situation.”

Couch’s thumb was broken in a freak accident when his throwing hand crashed into the hand of linebacker Ryan Taylor.

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NFL owners are scheduled to vote on a new scheduling format for the 2002 season when the expansion Houston Texans begin play and the league divides into eight, four-team divisions.

The plan being proposed would have teams playing other teams in their division twice, every team from a second division within the conference once, and each team from a division in the other conference once.

The final two games will be played within the conference, against one team from each of the remaining divisions they hadn’t faced earlier in the season. Match-ups will depend on where the teams finished the previous season. A division winner will play a division winner, a runner-up will play a runner-up.

The measure must receive 24 of 31 votes to be approved.

The NFL’s realignment working group had its first meeting and it plans to make a report to the full ownership at a special meeting on Jan. 17 in Dallas. A final decision on realignment will be made by June 1.

The last realignment took place in 1970, when the NFL and American Football League merged into two conferences of three divisions--the current set-up.

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Washington guard Keith Sims, who has been playing without practicing for several weeks, was placed on the inactive list for Sunday’s game against Jacksonville.

Sims has a sore Achilles’ heel, and only a long period of rest will help. He has been wearing a special boot during the week, but had somehow managed to put the discomfort aside on Sundays to play and play well.

With Sims out, Andy Heck will start at right guard. Heck has played almost his entire 12-year career at left tackle, but he did play one season at guard for Seattle eight years ago.

Also placed on the inactive list were defensive back Darrell Green, guard Derrick Fletcher and receiver Irving Fryar. Green, who has a calf injury, will miss his first regular-season game since 1992.

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Chicago center Olin Kreutz has been cleared to play in the Bears’ game Sunday in Philadelphia, but fullback Curtis Enis will miss his third in a row.

Enis, a disappointment since picked in the first round of the 1998 NFL draft, has a strained left shoulder.

Kreutz had been sidelined for four games because of a sprained left knee.

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Denver running back Terrell Davis, still nursing an injury to his left ankle, has been ruled out of Sunday’s game against Cincinnati. His teammate, linebacker Bill Romanowski, will reach a milestone against the Bengals when he plays in his 200th consecutive game, the fifth-longest streak by an active player.