Wide Receiver

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Life keeps lobbing these tantalizing opportunities at Antonio Freeman. Like a good receiver, he hasn't dropped one yet.Take his rookie season in 1995 with the Green Bay Packers. When the team needed a kick returner, the wide receiver from Virginia Tech filled the bill with a bang.Freeman averaged better than 23 yards per kick return, almost 8 yards on punts, and when the playoffs arrived, he scored on a 76-yard punt return to help eliminate the Atlanta Falcons.A year later, he was in the starting lineup at split end. Then he was out, with a fractured left forearm.

The blurb in the 1997 Navy football media guide on sophomore wide receiver Matt O'Donnell quotes coach Charlie Weatherbie: "Matt is a very physical player and good blocker. He has very good hands and goes hard all the time. He will be a big contributor this year."High praise, but for the first seven games this season, the native of Glenelg who was a two-sport star at Baltimore's Mount St. Joseph High, went almost unnoticed.All that changed Saturday in the Midshipmen's 49-17 rout of Temple when O'Donnell's first varsity reception came on a 41-yard touchdown pitch from Chris McCoy.

The Stallions are hunting for talent.With only two players on its reserve roster, the CFL team held an invitation-only workout yesterday for 27 unsigned recent college players, players recently cut in NFL training camps and former CFL players not under contract."

The catches are tougher to come by this season for Chris Armstrong, and the breakout games come less often.But when the Baltimore Stallions waged a war of attrition at receiver last night, their big-play man helped deliver a wild 42-32 victory over the Shreveport Pirates at Memorial Stadium.Armstrong caught two touchdown passes in the second quarter and, with 105 yards on five catches, producing his third straight 100-yard receiving effort.It was significant on a night the Stallions lost two receivers -- Reggie Perry and Robert Clark -- to injuries and weathered a 29-point fourth-quarter Shreveport rally.

Field of dreams, it wasn't.For the vast majority in a throng of 450 wanna-be Baltimore CFL Colts, Homewood Field at Johns Hopkins University was more like Back to the Future yesterday. A 9-to-5 future in the real world.There may have been more accountants at Homewood than pro football players. And there probably weren't a lot of accountants.When the Colts' first open tryout was history, Jim Popp, the team's director of player personnel, sent 17 players into the night with the dream still alive, but barely.

ATLANTA -- The post-game news conference was a few minutes old, and Alabama coach Gene Stallings already was testy about the questions.Why didn't he go for two points? Why did he run the ball so much on Alabama's last possession? Why didn't he blitz more at the beginning of Florida's last drive?Why? Why? Why?"I make a lot of decisions and not a lot of them are right, but there's never any doubt," Stallings said as he ended the news conference in which he also second-guessed himself.There also were some doubters among the crowd of 74,751 that crammed into the Georgia Dome to watch No. 6 Florida defeat No. 3 Alabama, 24-23, yesterday for its second consecutive Southeastern Conference championship.

Navy's Greg Emery knew all along he wasn't really a punter. A wide receiver, that was what he wanted to be.Emery was a punter only as an afterthought at Damascus High in Montgomery County, making the Washington All-Metro first team as a receiver in his senior season and helping Damascus go 11-2 and reach the state championship game.He was recruited by Navy as a wide receiver, but after his plebe season on the JV, the coaches asked what else he could do. They didn't think he had a future at Navy as a receiver, but they liked his work habits.

COLLEGE PARK -- When Maryland flew to away football games five years ago, wide receiver Richie Harris (5 feet 10, 151 pounds) used to sit between offensive tackle Ben Jefferson (6-8, 321) and defensive tackle Warren Powers (6-6, 277)."I had to sit in the middle to fill out the seats," said Harris, then a true freshman. "I remember one time we were getting off the plane, and a stewardess said to one of them, 'Oh, it was nice of you to bring your little brother along.' "There aren't too many people who believe Harris plays major college football.

NFL owners decided on a 17-week 1992 schedule yesterday that would involve a rebate of some $1 million per team to the television networks.The owners, meeting in Dallas, tabled a proposal by Art Modell, chairman of the NFL television committee, that would give the league a two-year network extension in exchange for the return of some $6.8 million per team in 1993."

Dexter Manley, the former Washington Redskins star who tried to make a comeback after being suspended for a year for substance abuse, was cut by the Phoenix Cardinals yesterday.Manley said he was embarrassed by being cut for the first time in his 10-year career but felt it was inevitable because the Cardinals play a 3-4 defense, which puts more emphasis on pass-rushing linebackers."I'm not some scrub. . . . I cannot accept a second-team role in the 34 scheme when I know that I should not have been on second team," he said.

The Ravens signed David Tyree on Tuesday afternoon after working out the free-agent wide receiver Monday. Tyree, 29, who spent six seasons with the Giants, is best remembered for making a leaping 32-yard catch by pinning the football against his helmet on New York's game-winning drive in the 2008 Super Bowl. "We've been looking at David Tyree for weeks now," coach John Harbaugh said during his weekly radio program on WBAL (1090 AM) on Tuesday evening. "He came out of training camp with a couple of issues, and he's been working hard to get those things healthy.

The Ravens worked out free-agent wide receiver David Tyree on Tuesday and asked him to take a physical, which he passed. The team isn't expected to get in contact with Tyree until next week at the earliest. Players who aren't on the season-opening roster aren't guaranteed a full year's salary. General manager Ozzie Newsome confirmed on the team's Web site Tyree's tryout. This marks the Ravens' first attempt to upgrade their wide receiver group since the final major cutdown this past weekend.

Derrick Mason ended his brief but bewildering retirement Saturday, a decision that elevates the Ravens to Super Bowl contenders once again. The team's top wide receiver is expected to suit up for training camp today, returning to the field only 20 days after abruptly announcing that his career was over. "It was a tough decision, but I think it was a good decision for me to come back," Mason said in a statement released by the team. "I needed to evaluate my life, football and my career.

If wide receiver Derrick Mason follows through on his retirement announcement - he told ESPN on Monday that he's "99 percent" sure - his unexpected departure would leave the Ravens with few options to replace him. It's like trying to shop on Christmas Eve - everything you would want is probably gone. Instead of having one of the NFL's sure things (Mason has caught at least 80 passes in five of the past six seasons), the Ravens face a situation in which they might have to gamble to fill the void he leaves as far as production and leadership.

Ravens Wide receiver Washington officially a part of team The Ravens officially added Kelley Washington on Monday, signing the veteran free-agent wide receiver to a one-year contract on the first day of the team's passing camp. During his six-year career, Washington has recorded 73 catches for 896 yards (a 12.3-yards-per-catch average) and nine touchdowns for the Cincinnati Bengals and New England Patriots. Washington, who is 6 feet 3, 215 pounds, improves the team's size at wide receiver.

Fans and the media are wondering why the Ravens didn't sign a wide receiver in free agency or draft one. After hearing the most pressing question about the Ravens for months, quarterback Joe Flacco and his receivers confidently responded Friday after the first day of full-team minicamp. "We had a pretty darn good team last year, obviously, with the guys that we have," Flacco said. "So, we don't need anybody else. We feel like we have the guys to get it done. We feel like we have the guys to be a Super Bowl team."

The NFL draft is full of suspense for the Ravens on Saturday because of their position in each round. Because they are drafting so late, much of what they do will be decided by who picks in front of them. But the Ravens are right in planning to choose the best player available. If you listen to many fans, you would think the Ravens are only one player away from the Super Bowl because they reached the AFC championship game last season. That's so far from the truth. Because of parity and how quickly things change in the NFL, you're never one player away from the Super Bowl.

Ramirez, Dodgers agree to $45M deal baseball The winter of discontent in Mannywood is over. Outfielder Manny Ramirez and the Los Angeles Dodgers officially agreed yesterday on a two-year, $45 million contract that keeps him with the National League West champions. The slugger can void the second season of the deal and again become a free agent. The stalemate was broken during a 6 a.m. meeting that brought the sides face-to-face at owner Frank McCourt's Malibu, Calif., home. The Dodgers confirmed the deal shortly after Ramirez, 36, passed a physical.

INDIANAPOLIS -Deon Butler did not take the conventional path to the all-time receptions record at Penn State. His scholarship offer was pulled back and used to bring in another recruit. He started as a walk-on defensive back from Woodbridge, Va. And he had the No. 1 recruit in the nation, Derrick Williams, in front of him when the Nittany Lions moved him to wide receiver as a freshman. By the time Butler's college career ended last month, his 179 catches had eclipsed Bobby Engram's school record.

Samari Rolle is expected to play in the Ravens' game against the Houston Texans on Sunday. What he can't predict is how his surgically repaired neck will hold up. Despite being limited in practice yesterday, Rolle said he hopes to play in Houston for the first time in seven weeks. But the 11th-year cornerback is understandably cautious about testing his neck and being susceptible to suffering even further damage. "Yes and no," Rolle said when asked whether he was looking forward to his first physical contact since suffering a bulging disc in his neck in the team's 28-10 win over the Cleveland Browns on Sept.