Replacements Will Officiate for at Least Another Week

Replacement officials will work the second week of the NFL season after negotiators for the locked-out union and the league decided they were too far apart to resume talks.

Tom Condon, chief negotiator for the NFL Referees Assn., offered to resume talks in a call Monday to Jeff Pash, the league’s chief negotiator.

But NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said it was clear there was little hope of progress had talks reopened.

“We have notified the alternate officials they will be on the field in week two,” Aiello said. “It was clear during an exchange of phone calls between Tom Condon and Jeff Pash that a meeting would not be productive.”

Condon said the sides were “still working on it. We know the replacements are going to work this week, but we’d like to sit down as soon as possible.”

The NFL on Saturday revoked its offer for a 60% wage increase and the doubling of salaries by 2003. The current offer gives the officials 20% this year and 75% over five years in a seven-year deal, an increase of two years from the original offer.

Earlier Monday, Aiello said Pash told Condon that talks could resume only if members of the officials’ four-man negotiating team were on hand to facilitate a deal.

“We want someone who can make a deal, not just someone who goes back to a committee,” Aiello said.

Quarterback Steve McNair is questionable for the Tennessee Titans’ game with Cincinnati on Sunday because of a bruised right shoulder.

The shoulder was sore and had a limited range of motion a day after McNair was sidelined Sunday in the Titans’ 31-23 loss to Miami.

Coach Jeff Fisher said doctors will perform an MRI exam as a precaution, but the Titans don’t think anything is wrong structurally in McNair’s passing shoulder, the same one in which he fought an infection last winter.

Sam Cowart will be out indefinitely with an Achilles’ tendon injury, leaving the Buffalo Bills without their leading tackler the last two seasons.

The middle linebacker will not need surgery on his partially torn right Achilles’ tendon. But Coach Gregg Williams said Cowart will miss “a significant amount of time” and it’s unclear if he will return before the end of the season.

Cowart was hurt Sunday during the second series of the Bills’ 24-6 loss to New Orleans.

Five-time Pro Bowl safety Carnell Lake reached an agreement with the Baltimore Ravens, who hope to have him in uniform for Monday night’s game against the Minnesota Vikings.

Lake was cut by Jacksonville, a salary-cap move. Baltimore will sign the 34-year-old former UCLA linebacker today if he passes his physical. Terms of the contract were not disclosed.

Ty Detmer will replace Charlie Batch as starting quarterback for the Detroit Lions, who struggled offensively in a 28-6 loss to Green Bay.

Detmer, obtained Sept. 2 from Cleveland, will start Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys.

Batch completed 20 of 39 passes for 276 yards and no touchdowns at Green Bay, had two passes intercepted and was sacked seven times.

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Michael Irvin will go on trial Jan. 14 in Denton, Texas, on cocaine possession charges, and an Oct. 19 date was set for a hearing on a dismissal motion by the lawyer for the former Dallas receiver.

Irvin’s lawyer, Peter Ginsberg, said he has evidence the grand jury was not allowed to hear.

Irvin has pleaded innocent to a felony charge of possessing less than a gram of cocaine, stemming from his arrest a year ago.

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Dallas Cowboy defensive end Ebenezer Ekuban, the team’s top pass rusher, will be sidelined for at least four weeks with a herniated disc