Romanowski denies Carter's threat claim

NEW YORK, May 9 (UPI) -- Retired NFL linebacker Bill Romanowski Wednesday denied he once threatened bodily harm to wide receiver Cris Carter before a game.

"I never would say a word to anybody, but I'll tell you, if you could read my mind, maybe Cris Carter is a mind reader," Romanowski said on ESPN's "The Dan Patrick Show." "Maybe he knew what I was thinking, but no I would never say anything to anybody because I was in the zone. I was thinking about what I had to do to help my team win a football game."

Romanowski, 46, played played in five Super Bowls in 16 NFL seasons for San Francisco, Philadelphia, Denver and Oakland before retiring in 2003.

Carter, also 46, was an elite receiver who played with Philadelphia, Minnesota and Miami from 1987 to 2002. Now a TV football analyst, he made the allegation on the Patrick show Tuesday while saying he had placed a bounty on Romanowski.

"When a guy says he's going to end his career, he doesn't just say that arbitrarily. It ain't just like that slipped out of his mouth and like 'ah, I'm sorry I said that,'" Carter said. "You know when you go over that line. Bill Romanowski said that to me in a game, at the beginning of a game, so I had to put the bounty on him."

Romanowski responded "It couldn't have been a very big one [bounty], and here's why, because it didn't work."

Romanowski makes no bones about the violent nature of football, however.

"I was going after anybody who had the ball in their hands," he said.

Asked about being fined $20,000 for a hit he once put on Caroline quarterback Kerry Collins, Romanowski called it one of his best hits ever.

"He was bleeding out of his ears, his nose, his mouth, and his helmet was cracked in three places and his face mask was mangled," Romanowski said.

He said trash talk was a way of life during his playing days and if that constitutes a threat, then he got threatened and threatened other players "in every football game I've ever played in."