NFL roundup

Denver broncos

Source: Manning will take pay cut, return

ENGLWOOD, colo.

Hold that gold watch. Peyton Manning is taking one more shot at the silver trophy.

Weeks of speculation about the five-time MVP’s future ended Wednesday with word that he’s returning for an 18th season in the NFL and fourth in Denver.

A person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press that Manning will take a $4 million pay cut, from $19 million to $15 million, but that he can make it all back through performance incentives. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because there was no official announcement of the deal.

Manning will take his physical and sign his revised contract Thursday, then return April 13 for team conditioning.

Manning mulled retirement after the Broncos’ playoff loss to the Indianapolis Colts. But he determined he still had the health and hunger to keep playing at age 39, when he tries to become the oldest QB to win a Super Bowl.

Manning, who won a title with the Colts in 2006, met with general manager John Elway a few weeks ago after taking some time to decompress from an arduous season and told him he wasn’t ready to retire. Reminiscent of Brett Favre’s annual flirtations with retirement, however, this saga dragged on as the Broncos and Manning’s representatives reworked the quarterback’s contract.

VIKINGS-BILLS trade

Vikings agree to deal Cassel for draft pick

MINNEAPOLIS

The Minnesota Vikings and the Buffalo Bills have agreed on a trade that will send quarterback Matt Cassel to the Bills next week and give the Vikings extra draft picks.

Both teams announced the deal on Wednesday, which will send two undisclosed draft choices to the Vikings and one undisclosed draft pick with Cassel to the Bills, six days before NFL transactions can begin with the start of the new league year.

The trade can’t be completed until then, but the announcement wouldn’t have been made if there were any potential roadblocks pending for the deal.

The trade also wouldn’t have been initiated had the Vikings not been confident in Teddy Bridgewater, the first-round draft pick who took over as the starter in the third game of last season after Cassel broke his left foot.

MARIJUANA

Jackson: Pot should be off NFL’s banned list

DENVER

Former Broncos tight end Nate Jackson says he believes the NFL will have no choice but to remove marijuana from its lists of banned substances in the near future.

Speaking at a marijuana business conference, Jackson called on the league to allow medical marijuana as a means to help players deal with the physical and psychological pain and head injuries inherent to their profession.

Jackson said he avoided opiate painkillers as much as he could during his six-year career from 2003-08. Instead, he self-medicated with marijuana so that he wouldn’t retire addicted to prescription drugs like so many of his contemporaries, he said.

“It kept my brain clean,” Jackson said Wednesday during the Cannabis Business Executives Breakfast that kicked off a three-day conference titled “Sports, Meds and Money.”

Staff/wire reports