Speculation

Move over, Jim Kelly and Randall Cunningham. Joe Montana, quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers and owner of four Super Bowl rings, is now the highest-paid player in the NFL. Montana, 34, and team owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr. ended more than six months of speculation yesterday with a hastily arranged news conference outside the cafeteria of Sierra College, where the 49ers are training. A new, four-year deal, sources said, will pay Montana a minimum of $14 million - and possibly as much as $16 million through incentives.

Speculation recently again reared its ugly head, leading Peter Luukko, chief operating officer of Comcast-Spectacor, to say last night that "We're not selling the 76ers. " Luukko said "there are no active discussions" with any potential suitors. "Nothing has materialized," he said. "We're going forward, excited about having the No. 2 pick in the draft, about having signed Doug Collins to be our coach. " He termed any rumor about a potential sale "an old story. " In 2006, the Sixers enlisted Galiatoto Sports Partners in New York to review and evaluate the qualifications and resources of prospective ownership groups.

The price of Mellon Bank Corp. stock, closing yesterday at $30.62 1/2, has risen 7.5 percent in value since Thursday and 34.6 percent since early this year. Mellon stock yesterday gained $1.25 on trading of 132,600 shares. Earlier this year, the stock fell to its 52-week low of $22.75. Its recent daily average has been 90,000 shares. The bank declined to comment on reasons for the advance. Analysts said the stock has been appreciating based on takeover speculation and expectations for improved earnings for the first quarter, which would be announced later this month.

Facing certain opposition from social and religious conservatives, New Jersey Gov. Whitman yesterday took herself off the list of prospective Republican vice presidential nominees. At an impromptu news conference, Whitman flatly announced that she would not be running with Bob Dole, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, this year. "I am not going to be running for vice president in 1996," Whitman said while attending a meeting of the National Governor's Association here.

Chicago Bulls assistant Jim Cleamons will be hired today as coach of the Dallas Mavericks, the team said yesterday. Mavericks spokesman Kevin Sullivan said, "Jim Cleamons will be named as head coach [today] at noon. That's about all I can say at this point. " Earlier, Mavericks officials indicated the coaching search was coming to a close. "We're through interviewing for head coach," majority owner Ross Perot Jr. said yesterday during an interview with Dallas-Fort Worth television station KXAS.

Apparently, only one group of people can stop the unfair speculation and criticism afflicting U.S. Olympic hockey team members who were not involved in the vandalism in the Olympic Village that followed their elimination loss to the Czech Republic. That group would be the handful of players who actually caused the estimated $3,000 of damage, which has been paid by the NHL. But as the NHL confirmed yesterday, its investigation is at a standstill, because the players involved have not come forward, and none of their teammates will identify them.

SHE WOULD not have his little kid. She would not do so for lotsa quid. Sounding very Dr. Seuss-like, Debbie Rowe, the former wife of Freakasaurus Michael Jackson and mother of his first two children, ended all speculation that she was the vessel for his latest tyke, 6-month-old Prince Michael II. "I wouldn't do it - not for $100 million," Rowe says, according to peoplenews.com. The 42-year-old former dermatologist's assistant is mom to the platinum blond Prince Michael, 5, (hey, naming two of your kids the same name is obviously Jacko's bag, baybee)

The Pittsburgh Steelers made official what has seemed evident for weeks: coach Bill Cowher is no longer negotiating an extension to a contract that runs through 2007. The team announced yesterday that it has ceased talks with Cowher on signing an extension so he can focus on coaching the returning Super Bowl champions. The team, which has had just two coaches in 38 seasons, has long had a policy of not negotiating contracts during a season, but wants to renew talks with Cowher once the season ends.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich stormed into this bastion of presidential politics yesterday, but brushed aside speculation he might run, suggesting he already is more important than his party's candidates and nearly as important as the President. The Georgia Republican happily welcomed the possibility of meeting President Clinton in a town-meeting setting tomorrow, when both men will be in the state. But he dismissed a suggestion that Republican presidential candidates might be invited.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell, after trimming steeper declines, as speculation that European leaders will announce new steps to tame the debt crisis tempered concern that the economic recovery is slowing. Down for much of the trading session, the S&P 500 lost 0.1 percent to 1,404.94, trimming a drop of as much as 0.7 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average retreated 54.90 points, or 0.4 percent, to 13,035.94. Volume for exchange-listed stocks in the United States was 5.6 billion shares, or 7.3 percent below the three-month average.