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"They can test me 1,000 times," the Dallas Cowboys receiver said yesterday. "I know that I don't use illegal stuff, so I'm good."
Owens just isn't very happy that what he insists was a simple miscommunication landed him in the NFL's "reasonable cause" testing program after he missed a random test.
"Especially with everything with the steroids and performance-enhancing drugs, for me to be put out there in that light, I think it's just a negative connotation for me," Owens said during the fourth week of the team's voluntary offseason workouts. "It's all because of a missed call that negative perception is out there."
Owens, 34, said he has never had a positive test "for substance of any kind" during his 12 NFL seasons.
Owens said contact information he gave the NFL after last season included agent Drew Rosenhaus' number "because I know he always answers the phone." Owens said the league also had a phone number that wasn't his and then tried to reach him on "an old number I never even put down."
While every NFL player gets tested, Owens is upset that he could be taken out of his routine for additional testing.
"It's just ridiculous," Owens said. "I take pride in what I do. I take pride in keeping myself healthy . . . I know what I put in my body."
Also, defensive end Chris Canty signed a $2 million, restricted free-agent tender.
* LeCharles Bentley's career with his hometown Cleveland Browns amounted to nothing more than a couple incomplete practice sessions.
The center asked for and received his release from the Browns, nearly 2 years after he suffered a major knee injury at the start of his first training camp with the team.
Bentley wants to resume his career and somewhere he'll have the opportunity to play, said his agent, Jonathan Feinsod.
Bentley, a two-time Pro Bowl center with New Orleans, signed a 6-year, $36 million free-agent contract in March 2006 with the Browns, reportedly spurning an offer from the Eagles.
* Jonathan Ogden will announce his retirement today, ending a stellar career with the Baltimore Ravens in which the left offensive tackle garnered 11 Pro Bowl invitations and a Super Bowl ring.
* Wide receiver Plaxico Burress isn't going to practice with the New York Giants until they give him a new contract.
Burress reported to the Giants' mandatory minicamp but refused to work out because he wasn't happy with the way contract negotiations are progressing between the team and agent Drew Rosenhaus.
Coach Tom Coughlin had indicated after practice that Burress did not work out because of a knee injury, but the receiver said he was healthy.
* New Orleans Saints defensive end Will Smith has signed a contract extension that will make him one of the NFL's highest-paid defensive players, a 6-year deal worth about $70 million, according to a person familiar with the deal who requested anonymity.
* Pro Bowl left tackle Jason Peters will be fined by the Buffalo Bills for missing the start of the team's 3-day mandatory minicamp, and teammates said his absence might be due to a contract dispute.
* Coach Mike Holmgren returned to the Seattle Seahawks' practice field after missing 2 days with what the team emphasized was a minor medical issue.
* Philadelphia native and former Eagles assistant John Rauch, the former Georgia quarterback who coached the Oakland Raiders to a berth in the second Super Bowl, died Tuesday at his home in Oldsmar, Fla. He was 80. *
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