Browns to release Couch, say it's time to move on

BEREA, Ohio (AP) _ Quarterback Tim Couch and the Cleveland Browns are finally set to part ways. Only the NFL stands in the way. <br/><br/>The Browns can't release Couch until paperwork is completed

Friday, June 11th 2004, 5:49 am

By: News On 6

BEREA, Ohio (AP) _ Quarterback Tim Couch and the Cleveland Browns are finally set to part ways. Only the NFL stands in the way.

The Browns can't release Couch until paperwork is completed to drop his grievance against the team. The Browns said late Thursday that the process could drag into the weekend.

A few weeks ago, Browns coach Butch Davis said he had no plans to cut the 26-year-old Couch.

Davis said Thursday that the Browns waited until now to part with Couch because they had tried to work out a deal with Green Bay. They also were waiting to see how backup quarterback Kelly Holcomb recovered from February shoulder surgery.

After a trade with Green Bay fell through and with Holcomb throwing the ball again, Davis said it was time to move forward.

``We just felt like we made a decision as an organization in January that we were going to go in a different direction,'' Davis said after the Browns' final day of quarterback school.

Couch's release is being held up by the grievance he filed through the National Football League Players Association after the team banned him from working out at its training facility. His agent, Tom Condon, said the NFLPA still has to agree to drop the grievance.

NFLPA spokesman Carl Francis did not return a message seeking comment.

The Browns said the league's Management Council also must sign off on dropping the grievance before Couch is released. Couch then would become a free agent after he clears a 24-hour waiver period.

Condon has had ongoing talks for the past two months with the Packers about Couch joining them to be Brett Favre's backup.

``There is not any deal done with Green Bay, although they certainly have expressed an interest,'' Condon said. ``He's interested in going to a situation he thinks would be appropriate, and Green Bay is an attractive place.''

Couch has passed for 11,131 yards and 64 touchdowns in 59 starts since the Browns tabbed the former Kentucky star as their first overall selection as an expansion team in 1999.

Following a 2003 season in which he lost his starting job to Holcomb in training camp, Couch's future with the Browns became uncertain.

``Everybody exhausted everything that they were going to do and it was just time to move on,'' Holcomb said. ``It's time for Tim to try to get on with another team, go somewhere else and start anew.''

Couch's $7.6 million salary for 2004 made it impossible for the Browns to keep him as a backup.

The club talked with Couch about restructuring his contract _ $15.6 million for 2004 and 2005 _ but when he refused to take a nearly 60 percent pay cut, the Browns decided to sign former San Francisco quarterback Jeff Garcia.

``I think the writing was on the wall three months ago,'' Garcia said. ``I believe that pretty much most of the team has moved forward and started to relate to me and the other quarterbacks that we have here in camp.''