Sharpe’s Demands Met: Injured All-Pro Receiver Released By Green Bay

Sterling Sharpe, one of the NFL’s premier receivers, was released by the Green Bay Packers on Tuesday, less than a month after spinal surgery.

The four-time All-Pro was operated on Feb. 3 for a neck ailment that kept him out of Green Bay’s two playoff games and will sideline him all of 1995.

His physician said over the weekend there was a 90 percent chance of Sharpe playing in 1996. Sharpe, 29, has spent seven years with the Packers and is the team’s career leader in receptions.

Sharpe’s agent, William “Tank” Black, demanded the Packers either raise their $200,000 offer for 1995 or release Sharpe so he could sign with a team willing to pay more.

Sharpe’s contract would have been worth $3.2 million this year, part of a remaining six-year deal renegotiated after his brief holdout on the eve of the season opener last fall.

The renegotiated contract included a provision that Sharpe be paid a $1.2 million advance on his 1995 pay by midMarch - a factor that added some urgency to the Packers’ decision.

The Kansas City Chiefs came to the defense of Joe Montana, saying the star quarterback will not be pushed into any decisions regarding retirement.

“I talked to Joe 2 hours ago,” general manager Carl Peterson said. “He will make that decision on his own. The media won’t make it for him. I won’t make it for him. He might have already made it at this particular point. But he will do his own thing.”

Safety David Whitmore also said he was “misquoted or misunderstood” when he recently told a television interviewer Montana is “probably done.”