Fullback Richardson Goes To Jets

The AFC East is becoming the new home of former Vikings. Just hours after Tank Williams joined the Patriots, Tony Richardson agreed to a one-year deal with the Jets.

When the Vikings signed Thomas Tapeh as their first free agent of the new season, it left Tony Richardson without a job. But that didn’t last long.

Richardson has agreed to terms to a one-year deal with the Jets. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Richardson becomes the second Viking to sign on with another team in less than 24 hours, joining safety Tank Williams. Williams signed a one-year deal with the Patriots Wednesday.

Whether coincidence or not, the feeling around here was that if Richardson or Williams would have been re-signed by the Vikings, they would have been looking for multi-year deals, but both signed off on one-year contracts to go the AFC East.

THURSDAY NOTES
* Jevon Kearse was supposed to be in the Twin Cities today, but apparently is spending some more time visiting the Titans this morning, according to a report in the Tennessean. That isn’t a good sign for those who want Kearse in purple, since Bernard Berrian did the same thing when it came to delaying other visits and wound up signing with the Vikings.
* It doesn’t sound good on the Kearse front. Whether playing the media or not, Kearse was quoted as saying that the Titans are his No. 1 choice, and when he found out Tennessee was interested in signing him, he reportedly said, “Let’s get a deal done.”
* The Packers are trying to move on from the announcement of Brett Favre’s retirement and are going to their own well to do it. The team has contacted Mark Brunell, one of the many previous backups to Favre, including Matt Hasselbeck and Aaron Brooks, all of whom started their careers with the Packers, but found themselves never seeing the field due to Favre’s ironman streak of consecutive games.
* Speaking of Favre, he is scheduled to hold a press conference at 11 a.m. today to face the media and answer questions.
* After getting vilified by their own fans over reports they had signed Javon Walker to a six-year, $55 million deal, Raiders executives cleared up things somewhat, saying that the crux of the deal is actually two years and $16 million. In a bizarre turn, the team said Walker signed a $6 million signing bonus and has base salaries of $5 million for each of the next two seasons. Beyond that, everything is up in the air and by no means certain. Nothing like rolling out the red carpet and alienating your newest player.
* The Dolphins may have finally found someone to trade with them for the first overall pick – the Falcons. In a surprising move, just weeks after cutting Byron Leftwich, the Falcons cut Joey Harrington Wednesday, leaving Chris Redman on the top of the depth chart.
* From the You Can’t Make This Up Department comes this: kicker Steve Christie announced his retirement from the league Wednesday – more than three years after his last game. Word on the street is that Fred Cox has called a press conference.