Friday, March 7, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
SUN WIRE REPORTS
Running back Garrison Hearst, the standout college player who was the No. 3 NFL draft pick in 1993, has agreed to a two-year contract with the San Francisco 49ers, the San Francisco Chronicle reported today.
The team has made no ann ouncement but set up a news conference today to introduce a new player.
Hearst, 26, agreed to a base salary of $200,000 this year and received a signing bonus of $600,000, the Chronicle said. The second-year payment is expected to be heftier, and a long-term contract could follow after his first season, the newspaper said.
The former University of Georgia star, who led the nation in touchdowns and was second in rushing his junior year, was the third player chosen in the 1993 NFL draft after quarterbacks Drew Bledsoe and Rick Mirer.
But he missed the entire preseason while negotiating a contract, then suffered a season-ending injury to his left knee.
It was a full year before Hearst got back onto the active list, and he played little in 1994. Returning in 1995, Hearst broke off a 38-yard burst on the first offensive series of the first game, eventually rushing for 1,070 yards for the Arizona Cardinals.
He has played the last two seasons injury-free. Last October, playing for the Cincinnati Bengals against the 49ers, Hearst rushed for 88 yards, his third-highest total of the year, on 21 carries. He finished the season with 847 yards rushing.
Before news of his contract, there was little indication the 49ers and Hearst, who has never visited the San Francisco facility, were in contact.
But the 49ers showed interest in Hearst as early as last summer when the Cardinals released him in a salary-cap move. That time, Cincinnati claimed the running back.
As Hearst's rookie contract giving him $2.06 million last year expired, the Bengals offered him a multi-year contract last year that averaging around $1.3 million a year.
When they pulled that offer, Hearst began looking for alternatives, said Hearst's agent, Pat Dye Jr.
Dwight Clark, the 49ers' vice president and director of football operations, reached guard Ray Brown's agent, Steve Baker, on vacation in Aspen, Colo. They worked out a restructured contract to make room under the salary cap, and the 49ers and Hearst had a deal, the Chronicle said.
* MOON OVER SEATTLE?: Warren Moon is close to a decision on whether to resume his career with the San Diego Chargers or the Seattle Seahawks. "Warren would be leaning a little bit toward Seattle, only because it's where he played college football and a place he'd consider retiring to," Moon's agent, Leigh Steinberg, said Thursday from his office in Orange County. "Again, discussions are ongoing." Both teams have offered the free-agent quarterback a two-year contract, Steinberg said. He wouldn't comment on financial figures, but the Chargers reportedly have offered about $750,000 a season. Chargers officials think the Seahawks have offered more money. If Moon signs with the Chargers, he would back up Stan Humphries, and Sean Salisbury would be released. If he signs with the Seahawks, he would back up John Friesz, a former Chargers starter and also Steinberg's client. When Moon visited the Chargers on Tuesday, he said that if he lands in San Diego, he would try to win the No. 1 job.
* STEELERS RE-SIGN TOMCZAK: The Pittsburgh Steelers are losing almost everybody except the one player who was expected to leave. The Steelers, who have lost five starters or former starters to free agency, kept a promise to quarterback Mike Tomczak on Thursday by re-signing him as a backup. The signing was unexpected because the Steelers seemed to be focusing on former Oakland starter Jeff Hostetler. Tomczak's return means they will go to camp with the same three quarterbacks as last season: Kordell Stewart, Jim Miller and Tomczak. The only difference is that coach Bill Cowher conceded in January that last summer's three-man derby was a mistake and either Stewart or Miller will start this season. "I think you can go by the statement at the end of last season ... and that will eliminate one scenario," Cowher said.
* HASELRIG JAILED: Former Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Jets offensive lineman Carlton Haselrig was sentenced to jail in Cambria County for his third drunken driving offense. Haselrig, 31, pleaded guilty in December to drunken driving and driving with a license suspended after a previous drunken driving conviction. Judge Thomas Swope refused a defense attorney's request that Haselrig be sentenced to rehabilitation in imposing a six- to 23-month sentence. "You've been given many opportunities to rehabilitate yourself, but you have failed to do so," Swope said.
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