AGENT DENIES ANY WRONGDOING BY CHIEFS' BAM MORRIS

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Former Kansas City Chiefs running back Bam Morris "is an
innocent party" in a federal investigation into an alleged widespread drug
ring, his agent said Wednesday.

"If I thought my client was involved in criminal activity, we wouldn't be
talking to the press," Terry Lavenstein said from his Baltimore office.

"I'd like to get his name cleared as soon as possible."

Morris, who unexpectedly announced his retirement from the NFL last month,
and teammate Tamarick Vanover were mentioned in an affidavit filed last week
in connection with drug distribution charges lodged against a Kansas City
man, Gregory Burns. Vanover's representative didn't return calls from The
Associated Press.

The affidavit said the distribution ring stretched from Missouri to
California and Mexico. Burns, described in the affidavit as a personal
assistant to Vanover, was alleged to be a major supplier of marijuana and
cocaine in the Kansas City area.

Neither Morris nor Vanover, who won a game against Denver for the Chiefs
this season with an 80-yard punt return, has been charged.

Meanwhile, authorities at the University of Kansas said they would contact
federal officials to discuss a report that one person had been denied bail
because he had been supplying drugs to Jayhawks football players and
fraternities.

FBI agents alleged that Chad M. Pollard "has supplied members of the Kansas
University football team with drugs since 1996 as well as various Kansas
University fraternities," according to documents quoted by The Kansas City
Star.

Athletic director Bob Frederick said he met Wednesday morning with
chancellor Robert Hemenway and that neither man knew anything about the
allegation.

Frederick said he asked Ralph Oliver, the school's director of public
safety, to contact the FBI for further information.

"The university is not an investigative body," Frederick said. "Ralph said
he probably wouldn't be able to be very successful."

Amy Perko, the associate athletic director who oversees Kansas' mandatory
drug-testing program, said athletes are subject to "a significant number of
tests throughout the year."

"The results of those tests are all confidential," she said.

Morris, who spent 89 days in a Texas jail in 1998 for violating probation
from a 1995 drug case, was mentioned once in the affidavit filed in
connection with the arrest of Burns. Vanover was mentioned several times.

The Chiefs, already reeling from a one-car accident on Jan. 23 that left
star linebacker Derrick Thomas paralyzed from the chest down, were taking a
wait-and-see attitude.

"Nobody here knows anything about it," team spokesman Bob Moore said. "If
something happens, it happens. But our people are not rushing back from (the
Pro Bowl in) Hawaii because of this."

Pollard and Logan Gearheart, from Kansas City, Kan., were charged early last
month with drug trafficking. Both pleaded innocent at hearings and Gearheart
was released on bond.

Morris, who unexpectedly retired from the NFL less than two weeks ago, twice
was suspended by the NFL for substance abuse while with the Pittsburgh
Steelers.

"Bam, unfortunately, will continue to have to live with the mistake he made
in 1995," Lavenstein said. "Any time an NFL player is involved in some type
of criminal activity, no matter how slight, the Bam Morris incident is going
to be brought up. That's something we have to live with, no matter how
unfair that may be."