All-Pro Williams signs extension with Vikings

Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kevin Williams has agreed to a seven-year contract extension with the Vikings.

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. - Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kevin Williams has agreed to a seven-year contract extension with the Vikings.

"I'm excited to get a deal done and finish my career with the team that drafted me," Williams said in a statement issued by the team. He was a first-round draft pick in 2003.

Williams has five sacks and nine tackles for loss this season, teaming with defensive tackle Pat Williams to anchor a defense that's giving up just 54.5 yards rushing per game, tops in the league.

The Vikings have been locking up players they consider to be building blocks on a team that is still coming together under first-year coach Brad Childress.

Williams had one year left on the deal he signed when he was drafted in the first round out of Oklahoma State. Terms of the extension weren't disclosed.

Williams had 21 1/2 sacks in his first two seasons and has rebounded after an injury-plagued third year in 2005. Williams, 26, has regained the form that made him an All-Pro in 2004 and earned him his first Pro Bowl berth. He has been the Vikings' most consistent pass rusher on the defensive line this season and is an excellent run stopper.

"The All-Pro speaks for itself, but a lot of the things he does go unnoticed," Childress said. "He's one of the building blocks of that defense. We're happy he's going to be a part of the Minnesota Vikings long into the future."

Dolphins' troubled Vick trying to move forward

MIAMI - Some won't cheer for him. They won't wish him luck. They won't care to see him succeed when he takes the field Monday night for the first time as an NFL player.

Dolphins wide receiver Marcus Vick understands.

"I ruined my own reputation back then," Vick said.

For him, it was long ago that he made mistakes off the field seemingly as often as he made plays as a quarterback at Virginia Tech. But in reality, it has been less than a year since he was kicked out of college for constant behavioral issues.

Still, he said, the few months that have passed don't nearly parallel the differences in his life.

"I made a lot of mistakes in the past," Vick said Friday. "There's nothing I can do to change them now, but it's all about how you bounce back. I need to keep moving forward, keep staying positive.

"For the rest of my career, I just want to stay on a straight path."

Before the game against the Jets on Monday, Vick will be activated for the first time as a pro, moving into the rotation of wide receivers as a result of Marty Booker's sprained ankle. He will be catching passes instead of throwing them. He will be the fourth option at his position, not the first.

Yet amid all the differences, there remains one reminder from his past, one that surfaced last week and undoubtedly will lead some to wonder if Vick ever can rid himself of the problems that have marred his career.

A 17-year-old girl and her grandmother filed a $6.3-million lawsuit in Montgomery County (Va.) Circuit Court against Vick, accusing him of sexual battery upon a minor, intentional infliction of emotional distress and willful and wanton conduct during a two-year relationship from 2003 to 2005.

The accuser says she was 15 when she and Vick began having sex for nearly two years through December 2005, after a judge ordered Vick to stay away.

The details of Vick's defense aren't known, and he would not discuss them because the suit is pending. Regardless of the outcome, something clear can be learned from the latest issue: Pushing toward the future doesn't always mean you can also push away the past.

"I think it's going to stick to me no matter where I go or what I do," Vick said. "The past is going to be something I have to keep dealing with, until maybe one day people forget about it."

[Last modified December 23, 2006, 23:10:04]