The New Orleans Saints insulted him with a $300,000 offer, linebacker Rickey Jackson said. They raised it just enough to soften the indignity, but not enough to entice him to sign.
Jackson, a six-time Pro Bowl player, didn't mind a reduced salary, or even less playing time. The deal the Saints said they were withdrawing would have wounded his pride as well, Jackson said."I don't think it was fair," Jackson said from the Saints' Mankato, Minn., training camp. "I expected a cut; I didn't expect them to treat me like I was dirt. I didn't expect them to insult me with an offer like that."
Jackson, 36, made a base salary of $1.3 million in 1993. He also made the Pro Bowl for the second straight year, starting all 16 games and getting 111/2 sacks.
The Saints offered him $500,000 for next season, or about $100,000 less than defensive lineman Frank Warren will make.
"They could have at least kept me around what Frank is making," Jackson said. "At what they offered, I would have been the lowest-paid linebacker on the team."
The offer did include the possibility of another $800,000 in incentives based on individual and team accomplishments.
"I couldn't have made them if they put me, Derrick Thomas and Lawrence Taylor in the same body," Jackson said. "Superman couldn't have made them."
49ers
Doug Brien, San Francisco's hope as the answer to their kicking problems, took part in his first workout Wednesday after ending a five-day holdout. He signed a two-year contract worth $367,000 that could be enhanced by $130,000 in performance incentives.
Veteran Roger Ruzek, whose overtime field goal for Philadelphia beat the 49ers in the 1993 regular season finale, also is in training camp.
Bears
Wide receiver Tom Waddle strained his left knee during a passing scrimmage Wednesday and is expected to miss two weeks of practice, Chicago Bears spokesman Bryan Harlan said.
Waddle, the Bears' leading receiver the past two years, collided with rookie cornerback Anthony Marshall and fell to the ground clutching his leg, raising fears it might be a much more serious injury.
"He just twisted it. Ligaments and everything else are fine," coach Dave Wannstedt said. "I was worried because he is so important of what we're doing offensively."
Lions
Bennie Blades, the former All-Pro safety who missed most of last season with a broken ankle, suffered a minor setback in his recovery when the ankle was too sore for him to take part in the afternoon practice.
Redskins
Heath Shuler's representatives think Washington's first-round draft pick will be under contract soon, possibly this weekend.
Shuler traveled to Kansas City for a few days of talk with his agent, Tom Condon.
Packers
Third-year wide receiver Robert Brooks was cleared to return to Green Bay's training camp after doctors corrected a potentially dangerous heart condition. An electrocardiogram revealed an abnormality in the electrical activity of Brooks' heart, and he was sent to the Milwaukee Heart Institute.
There, doctors discovered Brooks had a condition known as Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome in which an extra strand of muscle, often no larger than a strand of hair, forms an electrical pathway between the heart's upper and lower chambers.
On Tuesday, he underwent a non-surgical technique known as "radio frequency catheter ablation" to remove the extra muscle strand.
Cowboys
Think winning two Super Bowls has made the Dallas Cowboys complacent? Rookie Willie Jackson, a fourth-round wide receiver from Florida, knows the answer.
Jackson quit running on a pass from Troy Aikman during practice Wednesday. Instead of getting a handful of ball, he ended up with a faceful of Aikman.
"We don't quit running around here until the ball has hit the ground!" Aikman yelled.