Williams has OK to play

Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams has been cleared by the NFL to report Sunday with the rest of the team for the start of training camp, a year and a day after he abruptly retired.

The league’s 2002 rushing champion decided to seek reinstatement after sitting out last season. He still faces a four-game suspension at the start of the season for violating the NFL substance abuse program.

“We’ve taken the steps necessary to ensure an on-time arrival, and he’s excited about rejoining his team,” said Williams’ agent, Leigh Steinberg.

The NFL cleared Williams to report on the first day of camp without incurring a further violation of the drug program, league spokesman Greg Aiello said Tuesday. Williams acknowledged shortly after retiring that he failed drug tests and faced a suspension for testing positive three times for marijuana.

Steinberg said Williams studied holistic medicine at a school in northern California from October to April and finished the first year of a three-year program, then spent April at a yoga center in India and became certified as an instructor.

“Both emphasize natural methods of healing and are opposed to the use of drugs and alcohol to alter consciousness,” Steinberg said.

After retiring, Williams lost more than 20 pounds on a vegetarian diet. Steinberg said his weight is back above 215, still below his listed weight of 226 on the 2004 preseason roster.

Henry reaches extension with Titans

Running back Travis Henry has agreed with to a multiyear contract extension with the Tennessee Titans after being obtained in a trade with Buffalo.

Henry will be introduced at a news conference on today. He was acquired Monday for a third-round draft pick.

Terms were not immediately available.

The Titans already had Chris Brown who rushed for 1,067 yards on 220 carries, and his 4.85-yard per carry average in his first season as a starter in 2004. But Brown missed five games because of injuries.

Jags, Barnes agree to deal

Second-round draft pick Khalif Barnes has agreed to terms on a four-year contract with Jacksonville.

Barnes, a 6-foot-5, 315-pound offensive tackle from the University of Washington will get about $3 million, including a $1.435 million signing bonus, agent Ken Zuckerman said.

Barnes expected to be one of the first offensive lineman taken in the April draft, but he was admittedly disappointed after slipping to the Jags in the second round.

49ers hire new P.R. director

Aaron Salkin was named the San Francisco 49ers’ director of public relations on Monday, replacing an administrator who resigned during a scandal surrounding an offensive training video.

Kirk Reynolds quit in early June after the video was leaked to a newspaper. The video — produced by Reynolds to coach players on their attitudes toward the media and the public — featured strippers, racial slurs about the Chinese community, a mock lesbian wedding and Reynolds’ impersonation of San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom.