Owens, Hall settle issue over phone

The feud is over.

After Terrell Owens spit in DeAngelo Hall’s face in Saturday night’s game, the Atlanta Falcons cornerback insisted he’d have nothing to do with the Dallas Cowboys receiver.

Owens, who was fined $35,000 by the NFL, kept trying to contact Hall. Former Atlanta and Dallas player Deion Sanders convinced Hall to take a three-way telephone call Monday.

“We had a pretty good conversation,” Hall said Wednesday. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s over. We got it all out, cleared it all out. It’s over.”

Owens wasn’t ejected because officials didn’t see the incident.

Hall said Sanders, who was at the Georgia Dome as part of the NFL Network broadcast team, was “pretty persuasive.”

“I told Deion I don’t even think my mom could have gotten me on the phone with that guy,” Hall said.

He said Owens “had been calling the past couple of days, and I didn’t want anything to do with the guy.”

“I just listened to everything the guy had to say and then I said what I had to say,” Hall said. “I told [Owens] I don’t plan on retiring anytime soon and he doesn’t, so we’ll definitely meet again -- hopefully in the playoffs.”

After the game, Owens told the NFL Network he apologized for becoming frustrated during the game. Later, he said the spitting was just an accident.

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Tank Johnson got a reprieve from the Chicago Bears after his recent run-in with the law, but the defensive tackle’s legal troubles aren’t over: Officials in Cook County, Ill., say he violated his probation on a 2005 gun charge.

The Cook County Adult Probation Department filed a petition Monday alleging that Johnson’s arrest Dec. 14 in Lake County, Ill., on misdemeanor weapons charges violated his earlier probation terms.

Johnson is due in court Friday in the Chicago suburb of Skokie, and the judge’s options include sending him to jail.

Johnson was arrested after police found six firearms in a raid on his Gurnee home.

Less than 48 hours later, Johnson was at a bar when his friend, Willie B. Posey, was shot and killed.

The Bears have suspended him for one game for being at the bar and he will sit out against the Detroit Lions on Sunday.

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Michael Strahan, a seven-time Pro Bowl defensive end, practiced with the New York Giants for the first time since spraining his right foot in a game against the Houston Texans on Nov. 5.

Strahan refused to talk to reporters about his prospects for playing against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.

Before Strahan was injured, the Giants were the NFL’s 14th-ranked defense, giving up an average of 308.1 yards. Now they are ranked 20th, giving up an average of 386.5 yards in the games without Strahan.