Branch not catching a break on pact

Deion Branch is blessed with an innate sense of timing. His understanding of route running and how to get open is what separates him from most receivers in the NFL.

His timing with Tom Brady is nothing short of remarkable. He and the Patriots quarterback have made in-game, preplay adjustments via a wink or a nod, or a mere glance.

At his size (5 feet 9 inches, 193 pounds), Branch can't bully defensive backs or be Brady's favorite target because he is easy to spot in traffic.

For Branch, timing is everything.

Unfortunately, the fifth-year pro has had some poor timing when it comes to being paid. And time is running out for Branch and the Patriots to come to a contract agreement that will please him this season. Training camp is two weeks away and the clock is ticking.

Part of Branch's problem is he signed a five-year contract as a second-round pick in 2002. It is something the Patriots insisted on so they would hold leverage on Branch if he turned out to be a top player. Smart move.

That type of forced leverage even led to a change in the collective bargaining agreement (the ``Patriots Clause" as some agents refer to it), limiting contracts to four years for second-round picks, and five years for players taken in the bottom half of the first round. That came too late to help Branch.

Had Branch done like Antwaan Randle El, he would be a rich man today. (And, as is the case with the Steelers and Randle El, the Patriots would be missing him.)

Randle El, taken three picks ahead of Branch, signed a four-year rookie contract with a $930,000 signing bonus. Branch, the 65th pick, got a larger signing bonus ($1.025 million) to sign for five years. As is the case with nearly all picks but first-rounders, Randle El and Branch each were paid the league minimum in base salary per season.

That $95,000 difference in upfront money may not have seemed meaningless then, but it is now, since Randle El took advantage of free agency to grab a $10 million signing bonus from the Redskins in March. Branch has spent the summer dreaming of a similar payday.

Even David Givens, taken nearly 200 picks after Branch four years ago, is in better financial shape than the Patriots' No. 1 receiver. As a seventh-round pick, Givens's first signing bonus was more than $1 million below Branch's. But his three-year contract made him a free agent at the end of the 2004 season, so the Patriots were forced to offer him a midlevel tender that paid him $1.4 million last season.

Through four seasons, Branch and Givens earned roughly the same money through base pay and signing bonuses -- Branch got the better jump-start, Givens caught up last season. But while Branch is still locked down by the Patriots for another season, Givens picked up an $8 million signing bonus from the Titans.

The Patriots don't believe Branch has outplayed his contract. They say he has performed up to what they expected. Because of his play, he has hit escalator clauses in his contract that basically double his base pay for this season to a little more than $1 million, an amount the Patriots gladly will fork over.

But Branch believes it is time for the team to drop the fork and grab a shovel to dig for real money.

After the calendar year 2005, when Branch was named Super Bowl MVP and later had his best season, this offseason would have been the perfect time for him to become a free agent.

For Branch, the player, timing is everything. For Branch, the league's most underpaid receiver, the timing might not be right for him to pick up the money he deserves.

Being hardheaded may have saved Ben Roethlisberger's life, but being hardheaded is what likely will lead to the Steelers quarterback returning to motorcycle riding even after a near-fatal accident in June.

And, more surprisingly, Roethlisberger probably again will ride without a helmet.

In making his first public appearances since his June 12 accident -- he joined teammates at the ESPY Awards in Los Angeles Wednesday and was at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe over the weekend -- Roethlisberger said doctors recently told him he nearly died after his motorcycle hit a car and he slammed into its windshield.

Apparently blood was draining into his stomach from a broken blood vessel in his mouth or throat, which had Roethlisberger ``literally seconds, maybe a minute away from dying," he said in an ESPN interview.

Roethlisberger claims that not wearing his helmet that day was a mistake -- not because of the injuries, mind you, but because that day he had intended to have the helmet painted to match his motorcycle. He just forgot to grab it before he hopped onto his Suzuki Hayabusa, touted by the company as the fastest production bike on the planet.

Though he claimed he wears a helmet more often than not (it conceals his identity for one thing), he won't promise to always wear one in the future.

``Most of the time, I realize I live under a microscope and I have to be careful," Roethlisberger told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. ``But there are those times when I just want to be me, just be Ben Roethlisberger. I just want to be Ben, not Ben the Steelers quarterback.

``I mean, like Bill Cowher says -- I am a free spirit and I love that word because it is different than a rebel. I think I will continue to do that, whatever that entails, I'm not going to change who I am just because I had an accident."

Roethlisberger says he is still coughing up blood, but otherwise is recovering well from the accident. He has a scar above his right eye, some facial swelling, a small red spot in his left eyeball, and some scars around his knees, but he says he will be ready to go when training camp begins.

While there has been much discussion of the performance of Major Adams, the first-time agent representing Titans first-round pick Vince Young, another rookie agent from Houston has received nothing but positive reviews after negotiating his first NFL contract.

Russell Hicks represents Chicago second-round pick Danieal Manning, the highest pick to sign a contract this summer.

Manning, a safety from Abilene Christian and the 10th pick of the second round (six spots below Patriots receiver Chad Jackson), inked a four-year, $3.5 million deal with bonus guarantees of around $1.95 million last week.

Hicks said his initial tour of the world of NFL negotiations proved to be a learning experience, and somewhat tricky. But the convoluted collective bargaining agreement aside, Hicks is at home at the bargaining table.

``Oh, first you make sure you walk out with as much of your shirt on as you can because it can get ugly," he said. ``You don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate. If you don't bring it up, you can best believe they won't bring it up.

``Being a first-year agent did not concern me, it made me be really creative and diligent to make sure I covered all my bases."

If you didn't know this was coming, you are surprised when it snows here in November.

Terrell Owens, the mouth that roars, says he was misquoted slightly in a recently released book written by . . . yep, Terrell Owens.

The talented receiver, who gets as much attention for what he does just after touchdowns as he does for scoring them, described his recovery from a broken leg to run circles around the Patriots in the Super Bowl as ``heroic" in his book, ``T.O."

Owens says in the book that his comeback was, ``If you'll forgive me for saying so . . . nothing short of heroic." But Owens backed off that statement last week, attributing it to coauthor Jason Rosenhaus, the brother of Owens's agent, Drew Rosenhaus.

``As I wrote that, that was one of the words that Jason used," Owens said at a book signing not far from Texas Stadium, where he will suit up for the Dallas Cowboys this season. ``Not only myself, but a number of commentators have said the same thing. I can't really say that I called it heroic.

``I know it was a blessing to come back from an injury like that, especially in the short time that I did, for me, I wouldn't even say it was heroic. I think it was a blessing and it was my faith in God that got me back."

While the Patriots are thin at receiver, Tampa Bay has 14 on its roster, including recently added free agent David Boston.

Boston, a high school teammate of Givens, is looking to revive a troubled career that before a host of injuries and off-field issues had him rated among the top receivers in the game.

With Joey Galloway, Michael Clayton, and Ike Hilliard atop the depth chart, the Buccaneers should have one of the league's best receiving corps if Boston returns to form. Boston was a terror with Arizona, posting 98 receptions for 1,598 yards to make the Pro Bowl in 2001. He had 70 receptions for 880 yards and seven TDs with San Diego in 2003, but injuries sidelined him for all but five games the past two seasons.

``We're going to have to let some players go probably even before training camp," Tampa coach Jon Gruden told the St. Petersburg Times. ``We're eager to see what happens."

Troy Aikman, Harry Carson, John Madden, Warren Moon, Reggie White, and Rayfield Wright will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame Aug. 5.

Aikman and Moon, the two quarterbacks from this year's class, are from as opposite ends of the spectrum as any two enshrined in Canton, Ohio. Aikman was the No. 1 overall pick by the Cowboys in 1989, while Moon will be the first undrafted quarterback to make the Hall.

After being warned that he would be picked late in the draft and probably asked to change positions, Moon went to Canada, where he led the Edmonton Eskimos to five straight Grey Cup championships.

``I think the way I did it was just a little bit different because of some of the other things I had to overcome that didn't have to do with football," Moon said Friday. ``I'm very proud of the fact that -- not so much that I was undrafted, because I would have loved to have been drafted -- but the things I was able to do considering I wasn't drafted and wasn't looked highly upon as an NFL-type player."

``NFL-type" player references Moon's skin color, which in 1984, after he finished a standout career at the University of Washington, was considered by some in the league to be a detriment.

Amazing that just 20 years ago there were those who questioned whether a black quarterback could succeed in the NFL. Per current depth charts, a quarter of the league's teams have black starting quarterbacks.

Moon, who passed for nearly 50,000 yards in 17 NFL seasons, is the first black signal-caller to make the Hall of Fame, marking what should be the last major first for black QBs, and hopefully putting the issue to rest. (Of course, if you don't think some of the criticism Young got before the draft was because of his skin color, you're not paying attention.)

``It just continues to legitimize the fact that -- even though I don't think that needs to be anymore -- that black quarterbacks can play this game at a very high level, and we've kind of established or accomplished things at every level of football that there is," Moon said.

``I think we've kind of done it at every particular level. There's nothing that ever can be said about the African-American quarterback and whether he belongs in the NFL, whether he belongs in the Hall of Fame."

Jerome Solomon can be reached at jsolomon@globe.com. Material from personal interviews, wire services, and league and team sources was used in this report.