Bears C Kreutz might retire after team agrees to sign Spencer

Olin Kreutz's 13-year run in Chicago is over after the Bears agreed to a two-year contract with former Seattle Seahawks center Chris Spencer on Sunday.

A six-time Pro Bowl pick, Kreutz was an emotional leader and an important piece for a team coming off a run to the NFC Championship Game even if he was no longer at his peak.

He had backed off his request for a multiyear contract and was willing to take a one-year deal. Even so, the two sides couldn't reach an agreement.

Now, the Bears are turning to the 29-year-old Spencer, the No. 26 overall pick by the Seahawks in the 2005 draft. Back then, Bears director of player personnel Tim Ruskell was the Seahawks' general manager.

"You guys know how I feel about Olin," Bears coach Lovie Smith said. "He's been a great Chicago Bear for us. Every year is a different year, a different team. You have to move on, which we're going to have to do. We are going to do it. We have a good football team, and other guys will move into that role."

Kreutz told the Chicago Tribune on Sunday that he might not ever play again.

"That is a decision I am still making. I am sure I will have an opportunity," Kreutz said. "I am just not sure if I want to play for anyone else. Retirement is definitely an option."

Kreutz played down any perception of animosity between himself and general manager Jerry Angelo.

"Jerry has been good to me too. He’s given me a lot of money and I’ve been there a long time," Kreutz said. "It felt like maybe it was time to move on. I just got that feeling. If I was right, if I was wrong, if the offer was fair. I have enough money. So the offer wasn’t a big hurdle for me. It was a feel I had, just maybe they wanted to move on no matter what the offer was."

The Tribune reported that the one-year offer Kreutz turned down was for $4 million.

The NFL free agency cycle is in full effect, with teams and players agreeing to terms fast as training camps open. Get the latest on all the news right here.

Like every other NFL team during this unique offseason, the Bears have been busy, adding former Pro Bowl receiver Roy Williams, running back Marion Barber, defensive tackle Amobi Okoye and punter Adam Podlesh. They overhauled their tight end corps by trading Greg Olsen to Carolina, releasing Brandon Manumaleuna and adding Matt Spaeth.

Losing Kreutz creates more questions on an offensive line that struggled last season. Chicago allowed a league-leading 56 sacks last year, with Jay Cutler taking 52 of them and suffering a concussion in the process. Things improved over the final nine games, when the Bears went with the same five players after going with four different lineups in the first seven games because of injuries and poor play.

Kreutz, however, helped keep things together even though he was no longer a dominant force. He was limited for much of the season while recovering from Achilles' tendon surgery.

Even so, not seeing him at camp the past few days was strange for his teammates. Guard Roberto Garza has been filling in at center and will likely continue to do so until at least Thursday, when Spencer can start practicing.

"(Kreutz) stands for what a Chicago Bear is," Garza said. "Tough. Hard-nosed football player. He made his teammates better."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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Leaf might need radiation on remaining portion of brain tumor

LUBBOCK, Texas -- Former NFL quarterback Ryan Leaf said Thursday he could face radiation treatments if the part of a brain tumor that couldn't be removed by doctors winds up getting bigger.

Ryan Leaf (above) was picked immediately after Peyton Manning in the 1998 NFL Draft, but that's where the similarities between the two end. (Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press)

Leaf told The Associated Press that the California doctor who performed the surgery couldn't remove all of the tumor because parts were wrapped around brain stem nerves that affect swallowing and shoulder movement.

"We're going to monitor it, and if it starts to grow again, then we're going to have to do a six-week round of radiation," Leaf said in a telephone interview from California.

Before the tumor was discovered, Leaf said he was upset because he was "dead sober" but still felt like he was "hungover all the time." He was addicted to painkillers a few years ago.

Leaf would run a few miles or work out and feel better, the result he said he believes was from increased oxygen in his blood. A short time later, he'd "just hit a wall again."

Leaf never thought his hydrocodone abuse caused the tumor, and he said his doctors agreed.

Leaf, a 35-year-old Great Falls, Mont., native, starred at Washington State, and the San Diego Chargers made him the second overall pick of the 1998 NFL Draft. He played for the Chargers from 1998 to 2000 and for the Dallas Cowboys in 2001. He threw for 3,666 yards and 14 touchdowns in his career, but he's considered one of the league's biggest busts before later struggling with drugs.

Leaf said he tried to figure out why he was feeling groggy, lethargic and dizzy.

"I was worried there was something in my new house, like the furnace in my new house, that was putting off some bad stuff," Leaf said. "A lot of different things were running through my mind, certainly not one of them was a brain tumor."

Leaf had the seven-hour surgery May 25, one week after being told he had a mass near his brain stem. The chance the tumor might be malignant, Leaf said, didn't cross his mind.

"When the doctor came in and said that there was a mass or a tumor, I never once let it creep into my mind that it was anything but that, that it needed to be removed and we'd go on with life," he said.

Leaf, who said he's rarely awed by people, found himself feeling that way about his neurosurgeon, Dr. Daniel Kelly.

"I didn't want to know the specifics of what he was about to do," he said. "I just wanted him to get in there and do it."

Leaf recently finished writing a draft of the first of three books he's penning for Crimson Oak Publishing of Pullman, Wash. -- about his life, football career and addiction to painkillers. He also writes a column for his alma mater's website and sells resort packages.

All of it has helped Leaf put some distance between his NFL past and his stumble at West Texas A&M. In 2008, while coaching football and golf at the Division II school, Leaf re-injured his wrist and wound up getting addicted to painkillers.

Leaf resigned and was later indicted. Leaf recently was sentenced to 10 years of probation after pleading guilty to eight felony drug charges, all but one of them obtaining a controlled substance by fraud.

Asked if his recovery from drug addiction helped him face having a brain tumor, Leaf said everything that has happened since he was arrested, indicted and completed rehab has helped him grow.

"It's what it should be," he said. "Everybody goes through this. It's just that it's weird that, again, on my end of things, that it's public knowledge that I've begun changing in this way."

Leaf said his perspective on life has broadened and he no longer runs from problems.

"If you deny the fact that things are happening to you, that this is going on, whether it's negative or positive, you're just putting yourself behind the 8-ball because you're not facing it head on and dealing with it in a positive way that you've learned how to," said Leaf, who has been sober since November 2008.

Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press

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Report: Panthers' Moore might fit into Dolphins' QB picture

Miami Dolphins quarterback Chad Henne acknowledged last week he will "still have to compete" for the starting job with an established veteran after the club declined to draft a quarterback in April's draft.

The Palm Beach Post speculated Tuesday that competitor could be the Carolina Panthers' Matt Moore.

The assertion is based on three factors:

First, Moore has ties to Dolphins coach Tony Sparano and general manager Jeff Ireland as both were on staff with the Cowboys when Dallas signed Moore as an undrafted free agent in 2007.

Second, Moore could come cheap because the Panthers also have quarterbacks Cam Newton -- the No. 1 overall pick in 2011, Jimmy Clausen and Tony Pike, both 2010 draft picks, and veteran Brian St. Pierre on their depth chart. Heading into his fifth season, Moore is an unrestricted free agent whom the Panthers could choose not to re-sign. Depending upon the free-agency rules in any collective bargaining agreement between the owners and players, Moore could become an unrestricted free agent.

Third, Moore has plenty of game experience -- a prerequisite for the Dolphins -- with 11 starts and 20 appearances during the three seasons he's been on the Panthers' active roster. He missed all of 2008 because of a broken leg. Plus, at 26, Moore is young enough to have some upside to develop further.

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Report: Packers LB Barnett might have season-ending surgery

The Green Bay Packers' defense might have to absorb another season-ending injury to a starter.

Nick Barnett likely will need surgery to repair his injured right wrist, sources told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Wednesday., meaning the linebacker wouldn't play again in 2010.

Packers coach Mike McCarthy said there is "definitely a possibility" that Barnett could be out for an extended period of time. McCarthy said Barnett and linebacker Brandon Chillar, who has a shoulder injury, are receiving second opinions this week.

The Journal Sentinel reported that Barnett will receive his second opinion Friday, then decide whether or not to have surgery.

Barnett, an eight-year veteran, was injured during the first half of last weekend's victory over the Detroit Lions. He left the game, then returned to the field wearing a cast and said afterward that the wrist wasn't broken.

Barnett isn't accustomed to missing games. Since the Packers made him a first-round draft pick in 2003, Barnett has played in 113 of 121 games in his career, including playoffs, and he needs just eight tackles to break John Anderson's all-time franchise record, according to the Journal Sentinel.

Desmond Bishop could join A.J. Hawk in Green Bay's starting lineup at inside linebacker if Barnett is sidelined, the newspaper reported.

The Packers also are hurting at safety. Rookie Morgan Burnett tore an anterior cruciate ligament against the Lions and is out for the season. And veteran Nick Collins had to sit out practice Wednesday because of a nagging knee injury, making his status for Sunday's game against the Washington Redskins unclear.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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