NFL | Bengals release Odell Thurman

CINCINNATI — Less than a month after the league reinstated Odell Thurman from his two-year suspension, the troubled linebacker is out of a job.

The Cincinnati Bengals supported Thurman during his suspension for violating the league's substance-abuse and conduct policies. But when he didn't show up for voluntary workouts that represented a chance to catch up, the Bengals decided they have had enough.

Thurman, 24, was waived Monday.

"Everything was fine two weeks ago," agent Safarrah Lawson said after Thurman was released. "He left for a week to deal with the death of his grandmother, and he didn't make it back."

Thurman failed to attend the team's three voluntary on-field workouts last week, when he was in Georgia after the death of his grandmother. The Bengals are installing a new defense, and wanted him to practice.

"I was just told by coach [Marvin] Lewis that he hadn't been in the building enough since his reinstatement, and they decided to go in a different direction," Lawson said.

Thurman led the Bengals in tackles in the 2005 season as a rookie.

Notes

• Team owners meet today in Atlanta and could vote to opt out of the labor contract. Such a move could lead to a 2010 season without a salary cap and a potential work stoppage the next year. The pact struck in March 2006 gave owners and players the right to pull out of the collective-bargaining agreement two years early.

Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFL Players Association, said he thinks an owners' decision to opt out of the CBA is imminent.

"If they were not going to do it, they wouldn't be talking about it," Upshaw said. "It's just a matter of when. In my mind, the sooner the better."

• Oft-injured linebacker Dan Morgan retired, two months after he signed with the New Orleans Saints. Morgan, 29, played seven seasons with Carolina.

• Receiver Andre Johnson, 26, recently had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee that will keep him from practicing with the Houston Texans until training camp in July.

• Offensive lineman Steve McKinney, 32, coming back from a knee injury that forced him to miss most of the 2007 season, signed a contract with Miami. He was released by Houston in March.

• Receiver Lee Evans, 27, confirmed Buffalo made him a contract offer that would prevent him from becoming a free agent after the 2008 season.

• Ex-Minnesota Vikings great Carl Eller — a former Seahawk — appeared in court in Minneapolis on charges stemming from an alleged scuffle with police last month. Eller, 66, a retired defensive lineman, agreed to appear at a pretrial hearing July 29 and a trial date was set for Nov. 4. He hasn't entered a plea.