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Jason Taylor won’t be Dancing with the Stars or sacking for the
Redskins this week. The Pro Bowl defensive end is out after having
emergency…

WASHINGTON — Jason Taylor won’t be Dancing with the Stars or
sacking for the Redskins this week.

The Pro Bowl defensive end is out after having emergency surgery
Monday to drain a pocket of blood from his left calf, leaving
Washington to shuffle its defensive line for Sunday’s game against the
unbeaten Dallas Cowboys.

Taylor, who was inadvertently kicked in Washington’s 24-17 victory
over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, underwent a 20-minute procedure
at a Northern Virginia hospital, coach Jim Zorn said, and was released
in the afternoon.

“They went in and cut open that portion where the blood was pooling
and released that pressure. As soon as it released, the muscle went
back down to normal,” Zorn said. “They closed it back up, and he’s
going to be fine. Our problem is he’s going to be out for this Dallas
game, for sure. I can’t tell you beyond that.”

Taylor, who deflected three of quarterback Kurt Warner’s passes at the
line of scrimmage against Arizona, had his calf wrapped and played the
rest of the game after being kicked. “Later on that night it started
getting more sore,” Zorn said. “He started feeling a little bit [of
numbness] in his ankle.”

Special-teams standout Khary Campbell sat out the 29-24 victory over
the New Orleans Saints in Week 2 after he had blood drained from his
thigh with a needle. Taylor’s recovery could take more than a week
because “they had to open it up” with surgery, Zorn said.

Oakland Raiders coach Lane Kiffin went over the injury report and his
team’s 24-23 loss to Buffalo before the questions predictably turned
to his shaky job status amid more reports his firing as coach was
imminent.

“This seems to be a common question here every day,” Kiffin said
Monday. “I’m going to kind of put it this way: Until I am told by Al
Davis that I’m not the head coach here anymore, we’re going to keep
plugging away the same way we have been.”

Kiffin, who said he has not talked to Davis since before the team’s
season-opening game Sept. 8, is maintaining some gallows humor.

“How about when you go for a jog yesterday and you feel like it’s
paparazzi because the TV cameras are following you and they’re asking
you if you’re still the coach of the Raiders,” Kiffin said. “I felt
like Brad Pitt.”

New England suffered its worst home loss in 10 years Sunday —
38-13 to the winless Miami Dolphins — but Patriots cornerback
Ellis Hobbs was amazed to hear the home fans booing as the teams left
the field for halftime.

“It amazes me how people react,” Hobbs said. “You would think that
this organization hasn’t won as much as they have and been successful
in the years that they have, and it’s a testament to how spoiled they
are where expectations are that high that we’re not allowed a bad
game.”

Detroit Lions vice chairman Bill Ford — son of owner William
Clay Ford — essentially said he’d fire team president Matt
Millen if it was his call.

“I think the fans deserve better,” Bill Ford said Monday, “and if it
were in my authority, which it’s not, I’d make some significant
changes.”

Asked by a reporter if he believed Millen should leave the team, Ford
said, “Yes, I do.”

Not that it’s a novel idea. The Lions are 0-3 and have the NFL’s worst
record (31-84) since Millen took over in 2001.

• Green Bay Packers CB Al Harris underwent additional medical
tests Monday amid a report he might have ruptured his spleen in
Sunday’s loss to Dallas. The National Football Post, a Web site that
lists Harris’ agent as a contributor, reported that the injury could
end Harris’ season but that Harris was seeking a second opinion.

• New Orleans TE Jeremy Shockey is expected to be out 3 to 6
weeks because of a sports hernia. Shockey is scheduled to have surgery
this week.

• Cleveland Browns coach Romeo Crennel said backup QB Brady
Quinn will get increased first-team reps this week and, if necessary,
could replace struggling quarterback Derek Anderson on Sunday.

• Buffalo starting FB Darian Barnes will have tests on his
injured right foot, leaving his status uncertain. Bills coach Dick
Jauron didn’t discuss the nature of the injury.

• Pomona (Calif.) Superior Court officials say former NFL kicker
Tony Zendejas has pleaded not guilty to charges that he drugged a
woman at his Southern California sports bar and raped her.

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Lane Kiffin was back at work as the Oakland Raiders’ coach Monday
despite more reports that his firing is imminent.

Speaking at his weekly news conference, Kiffin said he will assume he
is still the coach until owner Al Davis tells him otherwise. Kiffin
said he hadn’t spoken with Davis since before the Raiders’ season
opener Sept. 8 against the Denver Broncos.

”I have not had a conversation with him about it, nor has he gotten
in touch with me,” said Kiffin, who is 5-14 as the Raiders’ coach.
”I can’t worry about what other people say. If we believed everything
people said around here, we would be in a lot of trouble.”

Reports of Kiffin’s firing first surfaced on the eve of the second
game of the season against the Kansas City Chiefs. The Raiders won
that game to give him a temporary reprieve, but the reports picked up
steam again shortly after the team squandered a late nine-point lead
in a loss Sunday to the Buffalo Bills.

REDSKINS LOSE TAYLOR: A kick in the calf turned into a significant
medical issue for Washington Redskins defensive end Jason Taylor, who
underwent a 20-minute emergency procedure and will miss the game
Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys.

”He’s going to be fine,” coach Jim Zorn said. ”Our problem is that
he’s going to be out for this Dallas game, for sure. I can’t tell you
beyond that.”

Taylor, whose streak of consecutive games played will end at 133, was
kicked in his left leg in the second quarter Sunday against the
Arizona Cardinals. He finished the game and had three tipped passes,
but the leg became painful overnight, and he lost feeling in his ankle
as blood began to pool. He checked into a hospital early Monday.

”They went in and cut open that portion where the blood was pooling
to release that pressure,” Zorn said.

ON THIN ICE? A day after the Detroit Lions fell to 0-3 with a loss to
the San Francisco 49ers, vice chairman Bill Ford essentially said he
would fire team president Matt Millen if he had the authority.

”I think the fans deserve better, and if it were in my authority,
which it’s not, I’d make some significant changes,” Ford said.

Ford, the executive chairman of the Ford Motor Co., is the son of
William Clay Ford, who has owned the Lions since 1964.

In rare interviews, the elder Ford has stood by his decision to hire
Millen in 2001 and to stick with him since. The Lions are an NFL-worst
31-84 since Millen took over the team.

INJURY REPORT: Green Bay Packers cornerback Al Harris was undergoing
tests amid a report he might have ruptured his spleen Sunday against
the Cowboys.

• • Carolina Panthers linebacker Dan Connor will miss the
rest of the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left
knee suffered Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings.

• • New Orleans Saints tight end Jeremy Shockey will miss
three to six weeks with a sports hernia. Team spokesman Greg Bensel
confirmed Shockey will have surgery this week.

• • The Bills said fullback Darian Barnes will have tests on
his right foot, which he injured Sunday against the Raiders. His
status is uncertain.

BRADY TIME? Cleveland Browns coach Romeo Crennel said no decision has
been made about whether struggling quarterback Derek Anderson will
start Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals or whether he will be
replaced by former Notre Dame star Brady Quinn.

Anderson was 14-for-37 for 125 yards, threw three interceptions and
was sacked five times in a loss Sunday to the Baltimore Ravens that
dropped the Browns to 0-3.

”We’ll definitely try to get [Quinn] ready to go, and we’ll see how
it progresses from there,” Crennel said.

Taylor agent it’s in tim brown nfl

“I’m surprised I signed with him. I thought he was crazy,” Jason
Taylor said of agent Gary Wichard, right, who has always had big plans
for the defensive end. (By John Mcdonnell — The Washington Post)

Inside a roadside chain hotel in Akron, Ohio, sat across from a sports
agent named Gary Wichard and listened to the most ridiculous proposal.
It was 1996, and the agent spoke breathlessly of motion picture and
television opportunities and lunches with celebrities. The agent knew
people. The agent called important figures in Hollywood and they
called him back. The agent had a cellphone with a 310 area code and an
office at the bottom of the hill where Sunset Boulevard goes to meet
the sea.

It was preposterous, of course, because nobody outside of dedicated
football fans in northeastern Ohio and a handful of scouts even had
heard of Jason Taylor. He was a senior defensive end at the University
of Akron who weighed only 229 pounds. And yet here was Wichard saying
that if Taylor would only choose him as his agent, he would make the
player a Hollywood sensation.

Sitting in the back of a quiet auditorium at recently, Taylor chuckled
at the memory. “I’m surprised I signed with him. I thought he was
crazy,” he said.

Today, Taylor will line up at defensive end for the , who decided they
no longer wanted their most popular player over the last decade and
traded him to Washington.

In a way, this is a byproduct of a sports world in which players are
increasingly aware of opportunities in the entertainment field,
sometimes even cutting athletic careers short when lucrative
broadcasting jobs come open. In the spring of 2007, the NFL held a
two-day training camp for players who aspired to move into
broadcasting. And in the past year, former Redskins quarterback Tim
Hasselbeck and onetime , including the “Today” show.

“I think it’s a branding thing,” said Ian Birch, who until this summer
was the chief content officer of . “More and more sportsmen and women
looked to become brands and extend their celebrity. Do you want to
retire to some fishing village or do you want to start laying down the
foundation for some kind of brand?”

Taylor, named one of running back Jim Brown began his film career
while still active in the game. But what makes Taylor unique is that
his entertainment career was planned for him before he even joined the
NFL.

And yet nothing is guaranteed. While Taylor turned out to be
enormously popular on “Dancing With the Stars” — fans, for instance,
flooded TV Guide’s blogs and chat rooms with adoring messages — he
still faces great odds in trying to convert his run on the show into
something broader.

“There was a bit of a storm there and that’s not something to ignore,”
Birch said of Taylor’s popularity on the show. “But it won’t propel
you to superstardom. There is no precedent. ‘Dancing With the Stars’
has been a successful vehicle for rebooting fading profiles and in a
few cases — like , another former NFL star, in the show’s third
season] — generating new career opportunities. So far, these tend to
revolve around cameo roles in Broadway musicals, book deals, TV
newsmagazine shows and the like. But a major Hollywood role? Not so
much.”

It’s a thought echoed by Fred Dryer, a defensive end for the New York
Giants and who made the transition from football to television in the
early 1980s, landing the lead role in the police drama “Hunter,” which
ran for seven years on NBC.

“Jason Taylor is very charismatic and very, very likable, and like
they say you don’t get to play defensive end because you are a nice
guy, you play it because you are good,” Dryer said. “It’s the same
with acting. Something either happens behind the camera or it doesn’t.

“I find it takes awhile to break through that way of carrying yourself
as a football player. It’s always incumbent upon you to become that
everyday guy and not have that air, as they say in acting class, of
coming off seeming like roses being looked at. There is an actual
skill in acting class, and when people say you are a natural it’s a
trap. I spent five years in acting class before I left football. You
can go through some humiliating moments in front of people.”