Ed Reed

The one-game suspension of Baltimore Ravens safety Ed Reed has been reduced on appeal to a $50,000 fine, meaning he is eligible to play in Sunday's game at San Diego. Reed's penalty was reduced by Ted Cottrell, the hearing officer jointly appointed by the NFL and the NFL Players Assn. to hear and decide appeals for on-field player discipline. Reed was originally suspended for a helmet-to-helmet hit on defenseless Pittsburgh receiver Emmanuel Sanders on Sunday night, the safety's third such violation in three seasons.

The Houston Texans released nine-time Pro Bowl safety Ed Reed and put running back Arian Foster on injured reserve Tuesday, the latest blows in a disaster of a season. Reed missed the first two games after hip surgery and was recently relegated to a backup role. On Friday, he expressed his displeasure at not starting. On Sunday, after Houston's seventh straight loss, he publicly criticized the team and said it had been outplayed and outcoached in the team's first full game without Coach Gary Kubiak, who is recovering from a mini-stroke.

An initial response to Ed Reed's one-game suspension this week was a shrug. It didn't really matter, anyway. His Baltimore Ravens are playing the San Diego Chargers on Sunday. It got sillier as other reactions poured in. Baltimore Sun columnist Mike Preston , a veteran NFL reporter and commentator, lost his grip a tad when he wrote that this was detrimental to Reed's ability to take care of his family. The fine for the one-game suspension, were it to hold up, was hefty, no doubt.

Houston, we have a problem. Every NFL team has appeared in at least one conference championship game ... except the Houston Texans. Pittsburgh has been in 15 of them. Dallas and San Francisco have been in 14 each. Conference-hopping Seattle has appeared in both the NFC and AFC title games. There's a decent chance that could change this season, as Houston has made a slow but recently steady ascent into the rarefied air of the NFL elite. The Texans, who made their debut in 2002 and are the league's youngest franchise, first made the playoffs in their 10th season and won a 2011 wild-card game against Cincinnati -- with little-known rookie T.J. Yates at quarterback -- before losing in the divisional round at Baltimore.

The Houston Texans released nine-time Pro Bowl safety Ed Reed and put running back Arian Foster on injured reserve Tuesday, the latest blows in a disaster of a season. Reed missed the first two games after hip surgery and was recently relegated to a backup role. On Friday, he expressed his displeasure at not starting. On Sunday, after Houston's seventh straight loss, he publicly criticized the team and said it had been outplayed and outcoached in the team's first full game without Coach Gary Kubiak, who is recovering from a mini-stroke.

When singer Ed Reed left Los Angeles some 40 years ago, his dream of a life in music had curdled into an addiction-fueled nightmare. A member of the heroin-racked bebop generation, he had studied and jammed with jazz legends, but his self-destructive ways sabotaged his musical plans. Now in the midst of a remarkable late-blooming career, the 80-year-old Reed returns to L.A.

If the Baltimore Ravens make this road trek to the Super Bowl, they will remember that it began with a marathon run by Ed Reed. Zig-zagging his way for a 64-yard interception return for a touchdown -- the longest in Ravens postseason history -- Reed delivered the game-turning blow in a 27-9 win over the Miami Dolphins on Sunday. The first sixth-seeded team to win in the first round since the 2005 season, the Ravens advance to the AFC divisional round to play at top-seeded Tennessee on Saturday.

NFL tonight BALTIMORE (6-2) AT ATLANTA (6-2) TV: NFL Network, 5 PST. Line: Ravens by 1. Over/Under: 43. Story line: Matt Ryan has a 13-game winning streak at the Georgia Dome. That will be put to the test by a Ravens defense invigorated by the return of Ed Reed. Sam Farmer's pick: Ravens 21, Falcons 20.

Regarding British director Adrian Lyne's upcoming attempt to remake the film "Lolita" ("Not Your Average Nymphet," Calendar, July 14) and his comments that "I could make a movie about a 13-year-old girl getting chopped up and eaten and no one in the United States would say anything." Well, I am here to say to Lyne: Wrong! No matter how you package garbage, no matter what label you put on it, garbage is still garbage. Whether it is labeled satanic cannibalism or erotic, gratuitous sex, it's garbage.

The Baltimore Ravens have lost another piece of their 2013 Super Bowl champion team. Safety Ed Reed signed a three-year, $15-million deal with the Houston Texans on Friday. "I know already what they want to do and that's win a championship. I came here to do that,” Reed said. “Houston already has the attributes. I pray and hope I am the attribute needed to take us to the next level.” Reed, 34, made $7.2 million with the Ravens, who, since winning the Super Bowl, have had Ray Lewis retire, traded receiver Anquan Boldin to the 49ers and have lost linebackers Paul Kruger (Cleveland)

Free-agent safety Ed Reed is on the verge of signing with the Houston Texans, according to the NFL network. “I'm signing with Houston unless something changes,” Reed told the network. Reed has played for the Baltimore Ravens for 11 seasons and is the franchise leader in interceptions with 61. He helped lead them to last season's Super Bowl title. Last week, Reed flew to Houston aboard owner Bob McNair's private jet and Reed spent two days meeting with coaches and management, but left town without agreeing to a deal.

I never thought I'd say this, but good job, Bill Plaschke. I'm sick of the exaltation of Ray Lewis [Jan. 30] as a good guy, someone to be admired. It's sad that the NFL has allowed him to be built up as one of its stars. I'm glad Plaschke has taken the time to expose Lewis for what he really is. Rich Rudy San Diego :: After reading Ed Reed's tough talk about illegal hits to the helmet [Jan. 31], he is already showing signs of early-onset dementia — early aging and partial memory loss!

NEW ORLEANS - Super Bowl experience comes in all shapes and sizes, but no player in Sunday's game will be able to match that of the Baltimore Ravens' Ed Reed. Not only has Reed already played on Super Bowl Sunday, but he has also done it on this very Superdome turf. OK, so it was in an NFL Punt, Pass and Kick contest before the Green Bay Packers-New England Patriots game in 1997, and he was 18, but who's counting? "It was awesome," said Reed, who is from St. Rose, La., about 30 miles west of New Orleans.

NEW ORLEANS - Ray Lewis already has said this is his final NFL season, but could another Baltimore Ravens defensive star be riding into the sunset too? "That question was asked a couple days back, just about this being my last ride," said All-Pro safety Ed Reed , 34, who has flirted before with the notion of retiring. "I'm not focused on that right now. It's pointless to answer at the moment. " Reed, whose team arrived in New Orleans on Monday evening, said he prefers to keep the focus on the team and the final go-round for Lewis.

An initial response to Ed Reed's one-game suspension this week was a shrug. It didn't really matter, anyway. His Baltimore Ravens are playing the San Diego Chargers on Sunday. It got sillier as other reactions poured in. Baltimore Sun columnist Mike Preston , a veteran NFL reporter and commentator, lost his grip a tad when he wrote that this was detrimental to Reed's ability to take care of his family. The fine for the one-game suspension, were it to hold up, was hefty, no doubt.

As Miami Dolphins fans know, the path to recovery in the parity-loving NFL can be amazingly brisk, but still, really now, Baltimore?

More than 30 years after it was mothballed, the Riverboat Five is once again afloat, churning the waters of nostalgia with the sweetest strains of Dixieland this side of New Orleans. Clarinetist Ed Reed, a Vista resident since 1974, said he recently decided to resurrect the fabled Dixieland group he led in the 1950s because the early form of jazz, which originated in the smoke-filled barrooms of New Orleans around the turn of the century, is enjoying a strong resurgence.

The one-game suspension of Baltimore Ravens safety Ed Reed has been reduced on appeal to a $50,000 fine, meaning he is eligible to play in Sunday's game at San Diego. Reed's penalty was reduced by Ted Cottrell, the hearing officer jointly appointed by the NFL and the NFL Players Assn. to hear and decide appeals for on-field player discipline. Reed was originally suspended for a helmet-to-helmet hit on defenseless Pittsburgh receiver Emmanuel Sanders on Sunday night, the safety's third such violation in three seasons.

Baltimore's Ed Reed, among the best safeties in NFL history, has been suspended by the league for a game for repeated headhunting. Reed will not be allowed to practice this week, and cannot play in the Ravens' game Sunday at San Diego. According to the NFL, his personal-foul penalty in Sunday night's game at Pittsburgh was the third time in the past three seasons that Reed violated the rule against hitting defenseless players in the head or neck area. He was flagged for his hit on Steelers receiver Emmanuel Sanders.