Fans Bullish On Pack

Green Bay Packers officials say they’ve gotten more than 95,000 phone calls and four million website hits in five days from fans looking to buy stock in the team.

Packers president and chief executive Bob Harlan announced last Thursday that the Super Bowl champions were selling 400,000 shares of stock.

The Packers, a publicly held non-profit corporation, are selling the shares at $200 each. The stock pays no dividends and can’t be sold, except back to the team at the original price.

Shareholders receive full voting rights in the team’s management, an official stock certificate and an invitation to attend the annual stockholders’ meeting.

Marchibroda will return

Baltimore Ravens owner Art Modell ended two weeks of speculation by saying coach Ted Marchibroda will fulfill the final year of his contract next season.

Modell generated speculation after the Ravens were beaten 37-0 by the Pittsburgh Steelers two weeks ago in a nationally televised Sunday night game. He called the performance “an embarrassment.”

Dillon rambles on

Given an opportunity because of Ki-Jana Carter’s torn rotator cuff, Cincinnati Bengals running back Corey Dillon has taken over at tailback. He made his second start last Sunday and picked up 78 yards on 19 carries - a 4.1-yard average - in a 20-3 loss in Pittsburgh.

Carter carried only twice for 8 yards, an indication of what’s ahead. Bengals coach Bruce Coslet plans to let Dillon have the bulk of the carries the rest of the season.

Don’t like that name

An overwhelming majority of Nashvillians don’t like their team’s nickname and only about half are glad the Tennessee Oilers came to their city from Houston, according to a poll. The Oilers actually are playing in Memphis this season and next until a new stadium is completed in Nashville.

A Vanderbilt University poll of 510 Metro Nashville residents found 76 percent said they want the Oilers to change their name. Only 51 percent said they were pleased the team moved to Nashville.

Woman has surgery

Tameeka Messier, the woman injured last week in an incident at a nightclub attended by New England quarterback Drew Bledsoe and two other team members, underwent 3-hour spinal surgery Monday.

Surgeons removed two discs - the spongy tissue that separates the vertebrae - and replaced them with bone from her hip to fuse the vertebrae permanently.

Boston police Tuesday interviewed Bledsoe and fellow Patriots Max Lane and Scott Zolak about the crowd-surfing incident at the Paradise nightclub.