Chargers Find The Ways To Sign Means

Just more than two years to the day after tossing him out on the street, the San Diego Chargers welcomed back running back Natrone Means on Wednesday with a $19.1 million, six-year contract.

One of the heroes of San Diego’s 1994 Super Bowl season, Means will receive a $2.85 million signing bonus in a deal reached late Wednesday afternoon. The Chargers outbid division rival Kansas City, believed to be offering a deal averaging $3 million.

“We’ve been hoping we could get the guy back here,” general manager Bobby Beathard said. “It was a real roller coaster ride emotionally for the last few days.”

Means held out of training camp for 11 days in 1995, saying the Chargers had promised to renegotiate his contract. After saying that Beathard had “betrayed” him, Means signed a four-year, $7.3 million contract, and two sides agreed to renegotiate again in 1996.

But it didn’t get to that point. The Chargers released Means on Feb. 29, 1996, in part because they worried about another holdout. He then played for Jacksonville.

Woman: Meggett hit me after sex

The woman who accused New England Patriots running back Dave Meggett of sexual assault said he punched her when she refused to return the money he paid her for sex.

The woman, speaking to Boston reporters at a Toronto hotel, said she ended a sexual encounter with Meggett and Steve Brannon, also a professional football player, after their condoms broke.

The 33-year-old single mother was identified as a part-time exotic dancer and prostitute. Her name was not given.

Meggett, 31, and Brannon, 29, were charged in Toronto with sexually assaulting the woman. Meggett also was charged with robbing her.

Meggett’s lawyer, Alan Gold, said the woman had agreed to have sex with both men. Michelle Fuerst, Brannon’s lawyer, said, “If there was any sexual contact, it was consensual.”

Around the league

The Cincinnati Bengals signed former New York Giants cornerback Thomas Randolph, in a continuing off-season effort to strengthen its defense. On Tuesday, the Bengals signed former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Jerry Olsavsky to a two-year deal. …. The Philadelphia Eagles signed restricted free-agent tight end Marcus Pollard of the Indianapolis Colts to a three-year contract offer. …. Quentin Neujahr was signed by the Jacksonville Jaguars after the Baltimore Ravens declined to match an offer sheet by the Jaguars for the center and special-teams player.