Florida Sentinel Bulletin

MIAMI — LeBron James spoke with Mike Bibby after a game last week, and the NBA’s two-time reigning MVP is keeping the exact details of that chat private.

The Heat cleared a roster spot Tuesday by parting ways with Carlos Arroyo, and although the team made no formal pronouncements because of NBA rules, several players – James, Dwyane Wade and Mario Chalmers among them – said they will have Bibby aboard soon.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Before even playing a game with the Oklahoma City Thunder, center Kendrick Perkins signed an extension Tuesday to stay with his new team for a while.

Perkins joined the Thunder five days ago in a trade with Boston, where he spent the first seven years of his career and won the 2008 NBA title.

Now, he’s due to make about $36 million while staying in Oklahoma City through the 2014-15 season.

Perkins said he was attracted to stay in Oklahoma City because of similarities he sees to his Texas hometown and by his first impressions of the Thunder as a “first-class” organization. He would have become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, but said he didn’t “want to take anything for granted.”

NEW YORK — The New York Jets have placed a first- and third-round tender on cornerback Antonio Cromartie and wide receiver Santonio Holmes.

That means another team would have to give up a first- and third-round pick to sign either free agent – at least under the current collective bargaining agreement.

The Jets also officially announced Tuesday they had released veterans Damien Woody, Kris Jenkins and Jason Taylor and that linebacker David Harris had signed his franchise tender.

The 31-year-old Jenkins, acquired by the Jets in 2008, has missed most of the past two seasons with major knee injuries.

WASHINGTON – Clinton Portis was released by the Washington Redskins on Monday, ending a charismatic and sometimes contentious seven-year stay that, for a while at least, made him the face of the franchise.

Injuries and money led to coach Mike Shanahan’s decision. Portis had played in only 13 games over the last two seasons because of a severe concussion in 2009 and a torn groin muscle in 2010.

Portis was scheduled to make $8.3 million next season, and Shanahan made it clear at the NFL combine that the Redskins wouldn’t keep the 29-year-old running back at that price.

Portis is 77 yards of 10,000 career rushing yards and leaves Washington 648 shy of one of his oft-stated goals — Hall of Famer John Riggins’ franchise record.

Michael Vick has signed a one-year contract with the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Pro Bowl quarterback was designated as the team’s franchise player Feb. 15. He signed the franchise tender Wednesday.

Under rules of the collective bargaining agreement that expires at midnight Thursday, a team must pay a franchise player the average of the top five salaries at his position. Vick would make an estimated $20 million under this tag.

JACKSONVILLE —  Donovin Darius has signed a one-day contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars so he can retire with his former team.

The 35-year-old safety played for the Jaguars from 1998 to 2006, then played three games with the Miami Dolphins in 2007. He has been out of the league since.

A first-round draft pick by Jacksonville in 1998, Darius started 115 games with the franchise and finished with 858 total tackles, 14 interceptions, seven forced fumbles and two sacks. His final season with the team was cut short after 10 games because of a broken leg.

LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The Chicago Bears released veteran defensive tackle Tommie Harris on Monday, cutting loose a three-time Pro Bowl pick who had struggled in recent years because of injuries.

A Pro Bowl pick from 2005 to 2007, Harris was limited by knee and hamstring problems the past few years and never regained his old disruptive form. He had signed a four-year, $40 million extension in June 2008 and was locked in through 2012, but the Bears decided to cut him after several ineffective seasons.

INDIANAPOLIS — Cam Newton followed through on his pledge to participate in drills at the NFL scouting combine on Sunday, and he won mixed reactions.

Newton turned scouts’ heads when he ran the 40 yard dash in 4.59 seconds, which tied Washington’s Jake Locker for the third-fastest time among quarterbacks, tied for the best broad jump at 10 feet, 6 inches and had a 35-inch vertical jump.

But the Heisman Trophy winner from Auburn struggled with his accuracy in the throwing drills.

Newton, who worked with unfamiliar receivers in his throwing drills, flouted the advice a lot of agents advise their quarterbacks: to skip the passing portion of the combine and save those drills for campus workouts with receivers they know.

Newton completed 11 of his 21 throwing attempts. His ball sailed on 10-yard out patterns, 15-yard ins and fly patterns. He threw with pinpoint accuracy on all three of his 12-yard hooks, and completed two of three Z-out passes.

After watching Newton’s display, retired quarterback and ESPN analyst Trent Dilfer remarked, “The ceiling is so astronomically high for this player, Cam Newton, that the scouts, the GMs, the coaches are really going to be slobbering about the prospects of having him on their team.

It was 3 o’clock last Friday morning when Alicia Duerson’s iPhone flashed with a text message from her ex-husband, Dave Duerson in Florida.
She was confused when she woke up and read the words.

“The text said that he loved me and he loved the kids and for me to love the kids,” she recalled. “And that he thought there was something wrong with the left side of his brain and for me to please get his brain to the NFL.”

She sent the text to her son, Tregg, and together they tried to get a hold of Dave Duerson, but there was no answer. Hours later, his body was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the chest.

Despite a well-publicized domestic dispute, divorce and personal bankruptcy, his family believes it was his failing health that led the former Pro Bowl Safety for the Chicago Bears to take his own life.

“He was tortured inside,” she said.

Duerson says she and her ex-husband remained very good friends despite the split.

“Financially, Dave was dealing with it,” she insists. “I don’t think it was to the point he would take his life. He’d already been through the tough part of it. It couldn’t have been just that.”

Suddenly it became clearer, as Alicia Duerson recalled a situation recently when they were having coffee together in suburban Chicago. Duerson told his ex-wife about vision and memory problems.

He talked to me a lot about blurred vision, and he had to go somewhere in the city and he couldn’t remember how to get there. It was frustrating for him that he couldn’t remember how to get there,” she recalled.

Dave Duerson served on the NFL’s Board awarding benefits to former players. He was intimately aware of the symptoms of dementia caused by multiple hits to the head. His own father suffered from Alzheimer’s disease before passing away last year. Yet he never reached out to get his own help. Not to his friends, his family or his closest teammates.

“No, no,” Alicia said, shaking her head at the pride her ex-husband exhibited. “Dave was a very private and closed person.”