If Carr can't play, either Vinny Testaverde or
Matt Moore will get the start.
Moore was two years old when Testaverde won
the Heisman Trophy in 1986. That pretty much says it all.
SUPER BOWL XLI-I/II LIVE
BLOG COMING
Don't forget to tune in to PFT
at 4:15 p.m. EDT on Sunday for the Live Blog of the showdown between the
Patriots and the Cowboys.
It is the game of the year to
date, with not just a playoff atmosphere but a Super Bowl atmosphere in
Dallas.
So we're officially calling
the game Super Bowl XLI-I/II. And we hope it's a great one.
POSTED 11:15 p.m. EDT,
October 13, 2007
LEWIS OUT FOR BROWNS
Cleveland running back Jamal Lewis, enjoying a
resurgent season in his first year out of Baltimore,
will miss Sunday's game against the Dolphins due to a sprained foot.
Lewis has been listed as questionable on
Friday. The team announced on Saturday that the guy who set the
single-game rushing record against the Browns won't play.
The Washington, D.C. television station
WUSA is reporting that Redskins
offensive lineman Kili Lefotu was arrested last night after an incident at
an Ashburn, Virginia restaurant.
Per WUSA, Lefotu is being held in Loudoun
County jail and has been charged with being drunk in public, simple assault,
and destruction of property.
Lefotu is a practice squad player who went to
college at Arizona. The Associated Press reports that the Redskins
said Lefotu, as a member of the practice squad,
would not travel to
Sunday's game in Green Bay under any circumstances.
Lefotu is a marginal player who has never appeared in a regular-season game,
which means that if the Redskins are in the mood to
send a message that they won't tolerate players who get into off-field
trouble, Lefotu would be a likely candidate to get cut.
We're going to need to re-set
the "days without an arrest" counter after it reached the whopping total of
two days.
POSTED 4:32 p.m. EDT,
October 13, 2007
VRABEL FINED FOR SPIKE PLAY FRACAS
Patriots linebacker Mike Vrabel has been
slapped with a $5,000 fine for unnecessary roughness on a late play in
last Sunday's 34-17 win over the Browns.
On the play in question, the Browns were
trying to kill the clock late in the fourth quarter, and Vrabel bull-rushed
Browns left tackle Joe Thomas. Though Browns guard Eric "The Skipper"
Steinbach alleges that Vrabel ultimately dove intentionally at the knees of
Thomas, we think that Vrabel tripped, possibly over the leg or foot of
Steinbach.
The surprising aspect of the incident is that
neither Thomas nor Steinbach were fined for retaliating against Vrabel.
With all that said, the broader question is
whether any "roughness" displayed by Vrabel was "unnecessary." In
hindsight, it was, because Browns quarterback Derek Anderson spiked the ball
to conserve the waning seconds (while coach Romeo Crennel presumably scoured
the playbook for the page with the 17-point plays).
But what if Anderson had pulled the old fake
spike play, pumping it into the ground and then throwing it into the end
zone against a lollygagging defense?
As we see it, a live play is a live play.
And pushing a guy who, for whatever reason, isn't pushing back should never
be regarded as "unnecessary roughness."
Vrabel reportedly plans to appeal the fine.
And we think it should be reversed.
In July, NFL senior V.P. of sales and
marketing Mark Waller said that he hopes that the
NFL will have franchises based in London, Mexico, and Toronto within the
next ten years.
And there is now a report that the owners of
the CFL's Toronto Argonauts want to be the ones to bring the NFL to town.
David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski are
interested in any NFL team that might be available for relocation,
according to the Globe and Mail.
Per the report, the Argos owners "have decided
to take the offensive" in this regard, despite concerns that the
infiltration of the NFL into Canada could kill the CFL. Still, Cynamon
and Sokolowski plan to retain ownership of the Argos, even if they land an
NFL team.
The potential candidates for relocation
include, in our view, the Bills, the Jaguars, the Vikings, and the Saints.
BERRIAN DUMPS PARKER
Bears receiver Bernard Berrian
has a bad habit of dropping passes. Now, he apparently has dropped his
agent.
Multiple league sources tell
us that Berrian has parted ways with agent Eugene Parker.
As we understand it, the
five-day waiting period after termination has not yet expired, which means
that Berrian cannot hire a replacement.
Berrian, who is due to become
an unrestricted free agent after the 2007 season, is earning a base salary
of $850,000 in 2007.
POSTED 2:46 p.m. EDT,
October 13, 2006
CLARIFICATION OF THE "K" BALL PROCEDURES
A reader who used to work for one of the NFL
teams has advised us, in response to Saturday's "slick ball" story, that the
specific procedure for the "K" balls is to use one of them repeatedly until
it no longer is available.
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello confirmed that this
is indeed the protocol.
"Use it 'til you lose it," Aiello said via
e-mail.
If that's the case, we're confused about what
happened with the ball used on the field goal attempt that was nullified by
the time out taken by Bills coach Dick Jauron. In theory,
it should have been sent back to the center for use in the second attempt.
But, apparently, an unused "K" ball was introduced into the game for the
second try.
In our view, the better approach would be to
use one "K" ball after another. Then, by the end of the game, each of
the "K" balls will have been used at least one, possibly twice.
And how about using less than 12 "K" balls?
Do they really need a dozen of them?
We suggest using only three "K" balls, and
instructing the officials to make their best efforts to ensure that the "K"
ball is retrieved after every kick. Then, once the three "K" balls are
gone, a regular ball would be used.
The broader purpose of the "K" ball rule was
to prevent kickers and punters from doctoring footballs. There's got
to be a way to prevent these balls from being microwaved or filled with
flubber gas without incurring a risk that games will be decided by the
insertion of a slick ball at the worst possible moment.
POSTED 11:29 a.m. EDT,
October 13, 2006
MATT'S BROTHER HEADS TO SAME DIVISION
With the Cardinals losing "starting"
quarterback Matt Leinart for the rest of the season with a broken clavicle,
the Cards are turning to the brother of Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck.
Tim Hasselbeck, according to Adam Schefter of
NFL Network, intends to sign with the Cardinals in the near future.
Both teams currently are tied for first place in the NFC West.
The younger Hasselbeck has played for the
Panthers, Eagles, Giants, and Redskins. He started five games in 2003
for Washington.
His wife, Elisabeth, is one of the cohosts of
The View. Per Schefter, she'll take early maternity leave from
the show and head to Arizona with her husband.
Maybe Barry Manilow will take her place while
she's gone.
There's talk in league circles that former
Chargers, Redskins, Chiefs, and Browns head coach Marty Schottenheimer wants
to return to the NFL. But not as a head coach.
The scuttlebutt is that Marty wants to come
back as a General Manager.
It wouldn't be the first time that a former
coach looked to move upstairs, and Schottenheimer (if the rumors are true)
wouldn't be the only former chef who's currently looking to only be the guy
who buys the groceries. Bill Parcells is believed to be interested in
coming back to the NFL in a G.M.-only role.
Openings for 2008 could arise (and we're
sweeping broadly here) in Miami, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh (if Bill
Cowher returns and hires away Kevin Colbert and/or Omar Khan), Tennessee (if
Mike Reinfeldt becomes the Green Bay president or otherwise leaves),
Jacksonville, San Diego (where Schottenheimer likely wouldn't be a
candidate), Washington, Minnesota, Detroit (hey, it could happen),
Tampa Bay, New Orleans, Atlanta, Carolina, San Francisco, and St. Louis.
TRADES SHOULD HAPPEN, BUT
WON'T
Some Internet hack
offers
up five trades that should happen by Tuesday's deadline for swapping
players.
But they won't.
The problem? The early
trade deadline makes it harder for teams to justify giving up a good player
and creating the impression to its paying customers that the team has given
up.
Though Cowboys owner Jerry
Jones said on Friday that he'd prefer the trading deadline
to be pushed deeper into the season, Jones is in the minority. The
prevailing thought in league circles is that the NFL wants to eliminate the
temptation for weak teams to engage in late-season fire sales and contending
teams to mortgage their futures in the hopes of winning it all now.
Thus, as said Internet hack
points out, trades after the start of the regular season are rare.
This year, there have been only two (quarterback Charlie Frye from Cleveland
to Seattle and defensive end Bryce Fisher from Seattle to Tennessee).
POSTED 9:04 a.m. EDT; LAST
UPDATED 9:36 a.m. EDT, October 13, 2007
SLICK BALL USED ON MONDAY NIGHT?
The Cowboys exited the 2006 playoffs -- and
ended (for now) Bill Parcells' NFL career -- when quarterback Tony Romo
bobbled the snap on a late-game field goal in Seattle. Complaints were
made regarding the condition of the "K" ball that was sent into the game for
the play. Apparently, it was too slick.
There is now a claim by the Cowboys that the
ball that was used for the second last-second field goal attempt by Cowboys
kicker Nick Folk on Monday night was also slick. This time around,
however, the new holder (Brad Johnson) was able to control it, and the field
goal attempt was successful.
Said Cowboys owner Jerry Jones in a Friday
press conference: "I know the spirit is to have good, conditioned
balls in the game. That's the spirit of the rule. There were
enough balls flying around out there to have a solid ball in the game --
solid being one that isn't slicked up.
But I have heard the second ball was slick, yes."
Jones explained that the matter has been
raised with the league office. "When you win then it's a good time if
you've got some things that you'd like to point out or like to improve on,
it's a good time to do it," Jones said. "You're more objective and
your points should be taken more objectively than when you've lost.
There's no reason, there's no conceivable reason, I don't care if they lost
them both, not to have a conditioned ball in the game. The spirit of
the rule is to always have a conditioned ball to kick rather than a slick
ball. And it's my understanding that they lost one of the conditioned
balls and the other one we had just kicked."
After the Romo muff in the postseason,
the owners changed the procedures for handling "K" balls.
Previously, the 12 balls to be used on kicking plays were marked with a "K"
and placed in a bag. The ball boy/girl assigned to produce a "K" ball
was hired by the home team, and could have fished out of the bottom of the
bag the slickest ball he/she could find when a critical kick was going to be
attempted by the road team.
Now, the officials have more time prior to the
game to "rub down" the balls (insert sophomoric snickering here), the "K"
balls are numbered sequentially for use in the game, and an official now
monitors the selection of the "K" balls for use.
Jones' point is that, with only 12 "K" balls,
there should have been enough kicking plays in the game to ensure that a
brand-new ball wouldn't be inserted into the game with only a couple of
ticks remaining on the clock.
He's right. Based on the official
play-by-play -- and accounting for the field goal try that was killed by a
time out that doesn't appear on the official play-by-play -- the "K" balls
were used 30 times during the game. This means that the "K" ball used
for the second last-second Folk field goal, if the sequence had properly
been followed, would have been used twice before in the game.
NO REGRETS FOR PASSING ON
MOSS?
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones
touched on several other topics in his Friday conference, and
the transcript merits a read by any Cowboys fan (and by any of the folks
out there who don't like the Cowboys).
As to one of the many subplots
to Sunday's historic showdown with the Patriots, Jones tried hard not to
give New England's newest weapon any extra motivation.
The issue is the decision of
Jones not to select Randy Moss with the No. 8 overall pick in the 1998
draft. Moss claimed at the time that he'd been told that the Cowboys
were going to pick him, and Moss had a boulder on his shoulder for his
entire time in Minnesota as to the teams who wrote someone else's name on
the first 20 cards.
For the Cowboys, the grudge
always seemed to be a little bigger. (And here's a great item
from way back in April 1998 regarding the situation.)
And while it widely has been
presumed that
Jones regrets not drafting Moss, Jones tried hard on Friday not to
concede the essentially obvious -- while at the same time not adding any
fuel to the inferno that has carried Moss to five touchdowns in two career
games at Texas Stadium.
Here's the excerpt from the
presser:
Did you still regret not
taking Moss?
Jones: I didn't say that
I've ever regretted it . . . I don't know that I ever said that. Now I
basically understand why we didn't go that route but -- and I stand
corrected if you can show where I said that -- but don't think I said that.
Do you think Moss has
forgiven you for not taking him?
Jones: I know that he
[was] wanting to come to the Cowboys. We personally visited with him
and so I think that apart from the fact that you want to be drafted as high
as you can and you don't like this business of dropping down, I don't care
who you are, Randy Moss or not -- I know that's there too. If in fact
that helped his game against us then I'm never going to talk to anybody else
and not draft him because he's worn us out.
Knowing what you know now,
would you do it differently?
Jones: I wouldn't
speculate on that. We've at least shown one thing that I value a real
talented playmaker that could subject you to some criticism if you bring him
on the team. I've at least shown that. I didn't show it then.
SENECA DIDN'T GIVE THE
MIDDLE FINGER
There's a
video on YouTube
that appears to show Seahawks quarterback Seneca Wallace making an obscene
gesture after a fourth-quarter play during Sunday's loss to the Steelers.
We received a few e-mails
during the week on this one, but never had a chance to check our own DVR
version of the game to see what was going on.
Alas, Seneca wasn't shooting
the bird.
He was merely motioning to his
own bench, gesturing with his middle finger and ring finger, presumably for
certain personnel to enter the game.
POSTED 11:05 p.m. EDT,
October 12, 2007
QUINCY CARTER ARRESTED
NBC 5 in Dallas reports that former Cowboys
quarterback Quincy Carter
was arrested on
Friday for alleged possession of marijuana.
Carter, the one-time starting quarterback in
Dallas, was cut by the team after being suspended in 2004 for violation of
the substance-abuse policy. He later spent some time with the Jets,
and was in camp in the CFL.
Most recently, he played for one of the teams
in af2, the junior version of the Arena Football League.
Earlier this year, a report from ESPN.com's
Len Pasquarelli that Carter
was getting consideration for another chance in the NFL was roundly met
with scoffs and guffaws by league insiders.
POSTED 4:20 p.m. EDT; LAST
UPDATED 5:49 p.m. EDT, October 12, 2007
NOT THE FIRST FIGHT FOR TAYLOR
In response to news of a brouhaha in Minnesota
between running back Chester Taylor and defensive end Erasmus James, with
some collateral damage to left tackle Bryant McKinnie, a league source tells
us that this wasn't the first fight between Taylor and a teammate.
Per the source, Taylor and former Ravens
tackle Orlando "Zeus" Brown got into a scrum the night before a game in
2004.
Taylor, we're told, was bragging about his
relationship with one of Brown's friends. Brown suggested that Taylor
knock it off, and Taylor opted to run his mouth at the oversized lineman.
The jawing between the two of them continued,
and a fight broke loose.
And the chair seems to be Taylor's weapon of
choice. Just as he reportedly threw a chair at James earlier this
week, the source says that Taylor threw a chair at Brown.
Taylor had a reputation for being erratic and
unpredictable in Baltimore, and it's apparently one of the reasons that the
team didn't try to re-sign him when he qualified for unrestricted free
agency.
"Taylor's crazy," said the source. "He's
a talented guy, but he's . . . real mouthy."
CHILDRESS READS PFT
Though his former boss in
Philly, Andy Reid, claims not to be "blog efficient," Vikings coach Brad
Childress is a closet member of PFT Planet.
Well, he's no longer in the
closet. He outed himself on Friday.
Per our pal Sean Jensen of the
St. Paul Pioneer Press, whose cheating complaint against yours truly
in the PFT Media Fantasy Challenge is still pending, Childress mentioned the
site when discussing reports of a fight between running back Chester Taylor
and defensive end Erasmus James.
"I am always amazed today that
it's the age that we live in that we go from a 6:08 blog to a 7:39 blog to a
10:00 news to a morning newspaper to -- excuse me I forgot one --
Pro Football Talk. Excuse me, that's a blog," Childress said.
"What time was that, 7:39? Nightly news, morning paper, AP, ESPN, at
10:17."
UPDATE:
Says a reader in response to this one: "That's great news. Can
you pass along a message to Childress from Vikings fans everywhere?
PLEASE F--KING QUIT!"
FRIDAY INJURY REPORT IS UP
You've waited all week for it.
Friday. And that means . . . it's the Friday injury report.
This is the one with all of
the labels. And, as the New England Patriots have learned, the best
way to keep the other team in the dark is to designate all of the injured
guys as being limited participants in practice -- and then to list most of
them as questionable for Sunday.
POSTED 3:57 p.m. EDT,
October 12, 2007
YOUNG EXPOSES EMMITT AS A HOMER
In a weekly radio spot on KNBR in San
Francisco, ESPN's Steve Young disclosed that on-air partner Emmitt Smith was
openly rooting for the Cowboys during Monday night's come-from-behind win
against the Bills.
"He's sitting next to me," Young said, "and
we're watching the end of the game, and he's like -- he's like dying.
You know, they lose the two-point conversion that got knocked down and he's
like, 'Oh! Oh! What now?' And I'm like, 'Dude, you know you
played for the Cardinals in between? It's okay, you'll be all right.'
"When they kicked that field goal [to win the
game]," Young added. "He went running out on the field."
So much for objectivity.
But, in fairness to Young, he wasn't
complaining about Emmitt.
"It didn't bother me," Young said. "I
chuckled."
And, in our view, Young uses "chuckle" in the
condescending sense. As in "poor, pitiful, misguided Emmitt, who still
thinks he's on the team even though they ran him out of town when they
decided that he no longer had it."
POSTED 3:32 p.m. EDT, October 12, 2007
VIKINGS LOCKER ROOM TURNS
INTO JERRY SPRINGER SHOW
by Michael David Smith
More details have emerged
regarding the fight that took place after Wednesday's Vikings practice, and
it sounds like something out of Jerry Springer or pro wrestling.
Judd Zulgad of the Star
Tribune reports that the fight broke out in the Vikings' locker room
following Wednesday's practice. No one is saying what started it, but Zulgad
reports that defensive end Erasmus James threw a punch that landed around
running back Chester Taylor's right eye.
Taylor retaliated by throwing
a chair, but he showed about as much accuracy as Vikings quarterback Kelly
Holcomb has shown throwing footballs. Instead of hitting James with the
chair, Taylor accidentally hit left tackle Bryant McKinnie, Zulgad reports.
Taylor and McKinnie are good friends, and apparently the fight ended after
that.
Zulgad reports that when Taylor appeared in the Vikings' locker room
Thursday, he had a shiner underneath the eye. James has been added to the
Vikings' injury report with a shoulder injury.
A Vikings spokesman said Thursday night the team would have no comment
publicly, but seeing as coach Brad Childress and owner Zygi Wilf have
stressed the need for personal accountability ever since the Vikings'
infamous sex boat, it's safe to assume the coach and the owner have had
quite a bit to say privately.
NFL DOLES OUT FRIDAY FINES
by Michael David Smith
Adam Schefter of NFL Network
is reporting that the Dallas Cowboys' secondary was hit hard by NFL fines on
Friday.
Schefter reports that the
league has fined Cowboys safety Roy Williams $15,000 for a horse collar
tackle during Monday night's victory over the Buffalo Bills. Considering
that the rule against horse-collar tackles is often called the "Roy Williams
Rule," and considering that this is Williams' second offense of the season,
he should probably be pretty happy that he came out of the week only $15,000
lighter in the wallet.
Schefter also reports that
Cowboys cornerback Terence Newman was fined $5,000 for impermissible use of
his helmet in the game against Buffalo.
And elsewhere in the league,
Schefter reported that Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew has been
fined $7,500 for using the goal post as a prop in a celebration.
POSTED 12:55 p.m. EDT, October 12, 2007
HENRY TO CLAIM HE INHALED
SECOND-HAND SMOKE? by
Michael David Smith
Bill Williamson of the
Denver Post reports that the lawsuit filed by Broncos running back
Travis Henry is expected to revolve around his claim that he
inhaled second-hand
marijuana smoke.
The logical question, then, is
if Henry can just claim that he had marijuana in his system because he
inhaled second-hand smoke, and if a court rules that the NFL can't suspend
him because of that, how could anyone, ever, be suspended for a positive
marijuana test? And why would Henry, who knew he was one positive test away
from a one-year ban, put himself in a situation where he might inhale
someone else's marijuana smoke?
There may be more to Henry's
lawsuit than just claiming he inhaled second-hand smoke, though. He
apparently will argue that the combination of low levels of THC in his urine
sample and his willingness to submit to a lie detector test and give hair
samples should entitle him not to be suspended.
Henry seems unlikely to win
this challenge, but if he does, it could have a major impact on the NFL's
drug-testing policies.
Note: Williamson also writes
that there's no merit to the reports out of Detroit saying running back
Tatum Bell could be traded to the Broncos.
PACMAN FACES ANOTHER SUIT;
FISHER DOESN'T MISS HIM
by Michael David Smith
Jim Wyatt of The Tennessean
has two reports today about Pacman Jones, and neither is good news for the
suspended Titans cornerback.
First, Wyatt reports that
Jones will
face his third civil suit in connection with the melee at the Minxx
Gentleman's Club in Las Vegas, this one filed by club employee Tom Urbanski,
who was paralyzed in a shooting outside the club.
Jones, who has already been
sued by two other people in connection with the same incident, is also
facing felony coercion charges.
And although Jones told the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution over the weekend -- presumably with a
straight face -- that he thinks he did enough to get reinstated by NFL
Commissioner Roger Goodell, his coach doesn't sound like he wants him back.
Wyatt reports that Titans
coach Jeff Fisher said on ESPN, "As far as we're concerned
we've moved on. We've got returners, we've got corners, we have a real
healthy locker room and the decision will be left up to the commissioner.''
When pressed on whether he would want Jones back if given the opportunity,
Fisher said, "It would be a real hard choice right now. I like the way
things are going. But we are going to wait and see what happens at the
league office level and then we'll revisit things and make a decision.''
Fisher isn't going to come
right out and say he doesn't want Jones back because that would reduce the
Titans' leverage if Jones does get reinstated (which might happen next year
but will almost certainly not happen this year) and they try to trade him.
But it's pretty clear that as far as Fisher is concerned, the Titans are
better off without Pacman.
FRIDAY MORNING ONE-PER-CLUB ONE-LINERS
by Michael David Smith
Says Patriots coach Bill
Belichick of Cowboys LB DeMarcus Ware, "We saw a lot of him in college when
he came out in the draft. I thought he was probably
the best player in that draft."
Says Bills RB Anthony Thomas
after visiting TE Kevin Everett, "He's doing good.
He's
moving better."
Dolphins LB Zach Thomas has
switched helmets to help reduce the risk of concussion.
Says Colts QB Peyton Manning
of the offensive line, "We knew we were going to call on them in the run
game and the protection was going to play a big role in it, and
those guys really answered the bell."
Jaguars RB Maurice Jones-Drew is
likely to be fined for a celebration in which he pretended the goal post
was an ATM.
Titans DT Albert Haynesworth
appears ready to get more money than the $16 million guarantee that
Lions DT Cory Redding got this year.
Many in the Broncos
organization think
the three rookies are the team's three best defensive linemen.
Hall of Fame Bears running
back Gale Sayers offers this assessment of his old team: "They can't win
with Brian Griese and Rex Grossman throwing the ball 50 times a game because
they're not that good."
Says Panthers QB David Carr of
testing his injured back in practice Thursday, "It felt good, a little tight
in the release, but I think
it will
definitely clear up by Sunday."
Saints RB Reggie Bush
says he isn't
worried about the reports that he was taking cash on the side in
college.
Cardinals WR Anquan Boldin
explains why he's taking his time rehabbing from a hip injury: "I feel we
will be in the playoffs.
I will be [expletive]
off if I'm sitting out for a playoff game."
QB Alex Smith and TE Vernon
Davis are expected to
return for the 49ers' next game, October 21 against the Giants.
Seahawks special teams coach
Bruce DeHaven says the long snapper is
the most important player on the special teams.
POSTED 7:30 a.m. EDT;
LAST UPDATED 10:12 a.m. EDT, October 12, 2007
WINSLOW WINNING BATTLE OF WORDS WITH PORTER
After a couple of years of fighting injuries,
Browns tight end Kellen Winslow is developing into one of the top tight ends
in the league.
And he's also figuring out how to play the
game off of the field.
On Sunday, Winslow's Cleveland team gets
together with the Dolphins, who currently have linebacker Joey Porter on the
roster. Last year, Porter was fined for
calling Winslow a "fag" in post-game remarks.
This time around, Porter popped off on
Wednesday. "He's a receiver, really," Porter said. "He's not a
tight end, because he's not going to block anybody. If you ask me
who's going to win the Joey Porter-Kellen Winslow battle: Me."
Said Winslow on Thursday, "I think Joey Porter
needs a hug. He's so angry, man."
Winslow's retort seemed to have put Porter in
his place.
"He is saying all the right things," Porter
said. "Unlike me. I'm going to say how I feel."
Um, that's only partly true, Joey. We
have a feeling that you would have liked to have said, in response to
Kellen's suggestion that you need a hug, something like this: "Like I
said last year, that's what fags do."
So you've learned how to hold your tongue when
it might cost you money. You might now want to try working on
exercising discretion when your comments will potentially make you look
stupid.
Of course, if that were the case, Porter might
never open his mouth at all.
And few would complain.
STILL HOOKED ON THE TRĒO
It's been more than a week,
and I yet still feel like a kid on Christmas morning with my new Palm Trēo
755p from Sprint. Having the ability to quickly and easily check
e-mail messages from multiple accounts is the best feature, but everything
about this phone is a positive.
From the easy-to-navigate
touch screen to the SprintTV feature (that streams NFL Network live at no
additional charge for subscribers with the Power Vision plan) to features
like Google maps, I can't imagine a better handheld device.
The built-in camera is also a
great performer, as evidenced by the crisp, clean image that it captured --
from a non-HD television screen -- during Monday night's Cowboys-Bills game.
Originally, we thought the "Aaaaag"
was a typo. But maybe the guy who made that graphic had Tony Romo as
his fantasy quarterback.
So buy the Trēo 755p from
Sprint, and support the exclusive telecommunications partner of
ProFootballTalk.
(Or, if you find the Trēo to
be on the high end of your phone budget,
check out the brand new Palm Centro, which is available exclusively from
Sprint and is priced at under $100.)
FREE FANTASY ADVICE
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little more substantive than, "Start Tom Brady -- he's a good player"?
Then check out Matt Pitzer's Start/Sit
column for Week Six.
Matt is a nationally-known
fantasy expert whose work appears in a major daily publication that I've
been buying from more than 20 years, back when it cost only a quarter.
I pay a little bit more for Pitzer's two weekly PFT articles than 25
cents, but for you it's all free.
Of course, since I'm the one
writing the check, I incorporate Pitzer's advice into my own fleet of
fantasy teams (all two of them) before editing the column and posting it.
In my family league this
weekend, I square off against my 16-year-old nephew who lost interest three
weeks ago and doesn't change his lineup to account for byes or injuries.
He'll probably beat me by 40 points, but the margin would be at least 70
points if I hadn't followed Pitzer's advice.
POSTED 11:12 p.m. EDT,
October 11, 2007
SHARPER TRADES BARBS WITH CHICAGO TIGHT
ENDS
Vikings safety Darren Sharper didn't learn his
lesson after guaranteeing victory against the Packers a couple of weeks ago.
This time around, Sharper is taking shots at
the Bears' tight ends.
In response, Bears tight end Desmond Clark
said that Sharper needs "to worry about his job security."
Added rookie tight end Greg Olsen, who caught
four passes for 57 yards and a touchdown against the Packers: "I'm
sure at one time a tight end caught the ball on him. He's been in the
league. I'll go out on a limb and say a tight end has caught the ball
at least one time."
Olsen is right. Tight ends have caught
the ball against the Vikings in 2007. Alge Crumpler of the Falcons
snared four passes for 40 yards. Tony Gonzalez of the Chiefs caught
seven for 96 yards. Donald Lee of the Packers hauled in four passes
for 66 yards.
Sharper's comments make even less sense when
considering that the team's base defensive package -- the Cover 2 -- makes
it easier for tight ends to catch passes due to the soft spots in the
two-deep zone.
POSTED 8:27 p.m. EDT,
October 11, 2007
DOOKIE GETS CHARGED
Despite prior reports that the man who once
dropped a warm tamale in a clothes hamper wasn't in hot water over a
domestic incident involving the mother of his child, Steelers running back
Najeh Davenport now faces three misdemeanor charges.
According to Fox 8 in Cleveland,
Davenport faces charges of domestic violence, endangering children, and
unlawful restraint.
Davenport has not yet been taken into custody,
and will be given an opportunity to turn himself in.
The Steelers are idle in Week Six, and return
to action on October 21 at Denver.
And, most importantly, the incident results in
nine points for the Steelers in the Turd Watch "game," and it re-sets the
"days without an arrest" counter, only two days after it ventured back into
double digits.
POSTED 7:39 p.m. EDT,
October 11, 2007
VIKINGS SHOW SOME FIGHT, IN PRACTICE
Sean Jensen of the St. Paul Pioneer Press
reports that Vikings running back Chester Taylor and defensive end
Erasmus James got into a scuffle
after practice on Wednesday.
James landed at least one punch before the two
players were separated. And James shows up on the Thursday injury
report with a shoulder injury.
Still, one member of the team told Jensen, "It
was no big deal."
The 1-3 Vikings are coming off of their bye
week, and they face the Bears in Chicago.
POSTED 7:25 p.m. EDT,
October 11, 2007
CROUCH WORKING FOR THE AAFL P.R. MACHINE
So I received an e-mail today. From Eric
Crouch.
And unlike other e-mails I've received from
players or execs telling me how stoopid I am (get in line, guys), Crouch's
message read like a press release disguised as a "hey, how ya doin'?" type
of a message.
The subject line gave it away. "For Mike
Florio from Eric Crouch, Heisman Trophy Winner."
I'm glad he added that last part.
Otherwise, I might have confused him with "Eric Crouch, Guy who Quit the
NFL." Or "Eric Crouch, Washed-Up CFL Quarterback."
Oh, wait. They're all the same dude.
So here's what my new pal, Eric, had to say:
"About a month ago I received a phone call:
Marcus Katz, founder and CEO of the new the All American Football League
invited me to play in the new league.
"I had heard about Katz's idea of putting new pro teams in college towns and
re-creating great rivalries. I believe the New York Times called it
'Professional Football with College Spirit.'
"So I went to Detroit last month for an AAFL workout to check it out.
And I liked what I saw. And so did all the other players who attended
the workout.
"The league is starting with six teams in Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, Texas,
Tennessee and Michigan. The players need degrees to play. Games
will be played in the Spring beginning in '08. And there are lots of
great college football people involved, like Ced Dempsey, the former
President of the NCAA and Gene Corrigan, the former ACC Commissioner.
"So I signed up.
"Nebraska won't even have a team 'till [sic] 2009, but, let me tell you, I
have been stunned at how many people in Nebraska are really excited about
this new league.
"A couple of weeks ago, I was at the Florida-Auburn game and could hardly
believe how long the Florida fans were willing to wait in line to get their
name on the AAFL's Florida team's ticket list.
"And besides excited fans, the league has some good players (like Fred
Weary, Travis McGriff, Clint Stoerner, Tai Streets and many others with NFL
experience), all of which is contributing to the League getting lots of
local and national
attention.
"Just this week, Time Magazine, in comparing the AAFL with the UFL, which
plans on playing head to head against the NFL next fall, said:
"'The AAFL is certainly the more innovative concept of the two new leagues .
. . Since there aren't enough NFL spots for all the talented University of
Florida football players, the thinking goes, why not have some of them come
to Gainesville, suit
up in Gator blue, and play for the Florida AAFL team? They'd face off
against teams from Tennessee and Alabama, just like the good old days.'
"Today, I learned that Alabama Crimson Tide legend, Kenny Stabler, was named
to the AAFL's Alabama board of directors and Arkansas legend Joe Ferguson
was named to the Arkansas team board. And they're just the latest in a
string of former
NFL greats to get involved in the League's management.
"One thing I know for sure is that I am ready to play some ball.
"If how players and fans are flocking to this new league sounds like a
story, I'd be happy to help any way I can."
So thanks, Eric. Next time, though, why
don't you simply offer me 40 percent of the $15 million that you're trying
to wire to the country from Portugal?
David Carr, the replacement for No. 1
quarterback Jake Delhomme, has a back injury and has missed practice on
Wednesday and Thursday. That increases the likelihood of Testaverde
taking the reins.
WEEK SIX THURSDAY INJURY
REPORT
The info is in.
The guys who practiced, who
didn't practice, and who kind of practiced on Thursday is available.
Right here.
Friday's information is coming
on, um, Friday.
POSTED 4:29 p.m. EDT,
October 11, 2007
PATS-COWBOYS FEATURES RARE MATCHUP OF
UNBEATENS
I'll admit it. I was kind of hoping that the
Cowboys would pull off the improbable Monday night comeback against the Bills
because I wanted both the Cowboys and Patriots to be unbeaten when they meet
at Texas Stadium on Sunday.
Per the NFL, Sunday's game is only the fifth
time in league history that two teams with records of at least 5-0 will
meet.
In the history of the league.
And it's only the third time since the AFL-NFL
merger that teams with 5-0 records or better will get together.
The first occasion came on November 13, 1921,
when the 7-0 Akron Pros and the 6-0 Buffalo All-Americans fought to a 0-0
tie. Nearly two years later, on November 4, 1923, the 5-0 Canton
Bulldogs bested the 5-0 Chicago Cardinals, 7-3.
Nearly fifty years later, the 6-0
Vikings squeaked by the 6-0 Los Angeles Rams, 10-9.
Finally, the 5-0 Pats beat the 5-0 Jets in
2004, 13-7.
Bottom line? We've got to do a special
edition of the weekly Live Blog. And for those of you inclined to put
some of your hard-earned money at risk, the scores of those past matchups of
unbeatens seem to suggest taking the under.
Meanwhile, let's take a look at what PFTV has
to say about the game. Given the outcome of that Akron-Buffalo tilt
from 85-plus years ago, maybe my prediction isn't so crazy after all.
With 43-year-old quarterbacks still getting
work in the NFL, Miami signal-caller Trent Green isn't ready to pack it in
just yet.
According to the Miami Herald, Green
told coach Cam Cameron recently that initial tests on Trent's tool box have
created optimism.
"He
told me it was very encouraging,'' Cameron said. "He's really
upbeat. You could imagine, that's what makes those guys who they are
and what they are. They're competitors, and they think a little
differently than the rest of us sometimes. They can't imagine not
playing.''
Green suffered a Grade 3 concussion when his
helmet encountered the knee of Texans defensive tackle Travis Johnson.
Grade 3 is the worst kind of bump to the brain, since it results in
unconsciousness.
We've heard rumblings, however, that Green
really is better than advertised, and that he is recovering nicely.
Still, after missing eight games in 2006 following a vicious shot to the
noggin, Green could miss at least a few this time around.
But even if he can come back, should he?
Though he apparently has emerged from two serious concussions with no ill
effects, what happens if there's a third one?
A guy needs to know when to cash in his chips.
For Green, the smart move might be to get out while he still has the ability
to lead a normal life. With all of the controlled chaos that occurs
during a game of pro football, the chances of taking another shot to the
skull are too high.
And the fact that he'll surely be thinking
about it will potentially reduce his effectiveness.
With that said, playing pro football pays
pretty well. It's got to be very hard, then, for a guy who still feels
like he can physically do the job to walk away.
POLIAN SUGGESTS PATRIOTS
CHEATING DIDN'T WORK
We've had an opportunity to
take a closer look at the entire text of the column in which MDS found on
Wednesday the comments from Colts G.M. Bill Polian constituting criticism of
game officials.
Presumably unintentionally,
Polian said something that, in our view, tends to lead to the conclusion
that any alleged cheating by the Patriots via the videotaping of defensive
signals doesn't work.
Responding to a question
regarding the intentions of former Colts linebacker Cato June to educate his
Tampa teammates on the pre-snap histrionics of quarterback Peyton Manning,
Polian said the following:
"[A]ll
the intelligence in the world pre-game isn't going to do you any good,
because Peyton knows people are trying to figure that out. We change
it week to week and sometimes quarter to quarter, depending upon what we
think is appropriate, so it's very difficult for somebody to pick that up.
Now, we run certain plays and everybody knows we run them. The problem
is stopping them and knowing when they're going to be run. That's why we've
done a good job of disguising that and executing them. . . . It really
isn't the nomenclature that's important. What's important is the execution."
Though
Polian wasn't talking about the value to the Pats of building a database of
defensive signals used by the coaches that they face, the message is that
smart teams will change everything, week in and week out, because it's
obvious that foes are trying to crack the code.
Of
course, none of this changes our presumption that the activities in which
the Pats were engaged must have had some value or the Pats wouldn't
have been doing them. The Patriots got caught, and paid the price.
But the lesson here is that every team needs to protect itself from that
kind of stuff.
Just
like the Colts apparently do.
POSTED 11:50 a.m. EDT; LAST
UPDATED 1:34 p.m. EDT,
October 11, 2007
AKILI IS AVAILABLE
Hey, NFL teams. With all of the
43-year-old veteran quarterbacks off of the market, there's another option
to which you can turn if your starter's ACL goes snap, crackle, and/or pop.
Akili Smith.
The No. 3 overall pick in the 1999 draft
has been released by the CFL's Calgary Stampeders after completing 22 of
47 passes for 219 yards, no touchdowns, and five interceptions during his
career with the team.
Smith's departure results from the return of
Henry Burris, who at one time tried to migrate to the NFL from the Canadian
version of the sport but couldn't make the transition.
THURSDAY AFTERNOON
ONE-PER-CLUB ONE-LINERS
by Michael David Smith
Says Dolphins LB Joey Porter
of Trent Green's block on Travis Johnson, "Trent really wasn't trying to
take his knee out, but the reality of it is
he could have."
Patriots RB Kevin Faulk
worried that he suffered a serious injury Sunday, but
he checked out fine.
Injuries are forcing the
Ravens to play such a young offensive line that none of Steve McNair's
blockers
were even in high school when he started his NFL career.
Bengals coach Marvin Lewis
brought in a motivational speaker to visit the team. [Editor's
note: The travel expenses were minimal, since the guy lives .
. . in a van down by the river.]
Broncos DE Simeon Rice says
his first four games with the team have been, "A farce. It was a
faulty me. You haven't seen the real Simeon Rice.
That hasn't been me
out there."
Cowboys CB Anthony Henry is
expected to
miss Sunday's game with a high ankle sprain.
Says Giants RB Brandon Jacobs
of returning last week after missing three games to injury, "At some point
in the game
I knew I was going to fumble because I wasn't used to carrying the
ball."
Bears RB Adrian Peterson was
asked whether he's better than his namesake in Minnesota, and he gave an
honest answer: "He's got probably about 100 more carries than I have.
So I would
imagine he is."
Lions LB Ernie Sims says, "I
have the NFL [Sunday] Ticket, but
I don't ever get a chance to watch it." (Uh, Ernie, did you not know
you'd be working on Sundays?)
Packers coach Mike McCarthy
has no problem
with coaches calling timeout just before a field goal.
Falcons RT Todd Weiner will
miss two to six weeks with a knee injury; with LT Wayne Gandy also out,
the Falcons will now start an undrafted rookie and a second-year player.
Panthers coach John Fox says
of QB David Carr, "We anticipate we've got a shot at him
playing on
Sunday."
Says 49ers coach Mike Nolan of
what he heard in one-on-one meetings he had with the players: "Everything
from 'Get rid of the
head coach' all the way down to 'Why aren't I starting?'"
They're 2-2, in sole
possession of first place in the AFC West.
So are the Oakland Raiders,
the recent butt of virtually every NFL-related joke, for real?
Let's see what Brocato and
Florio think about that one.
VALVANO SPEECH GETTING LOTS
OF PLAY
We've received a bunch of
e-mails from readers who watched, and who were touched by, the YouTube clip
of Jim Valvano's March 1993 speech at the ESPY awards.
And some of you were moved to
make contributions to The V Foundation
for cancer research.
Said one reader: "You're
costing me money, but not with picks. You get me all teary-eyed with
the Valvano link, next thing you know I'm pulling out the Visa and spending
a couple hundred. Hey, it's more than Mike Vick would have given.
So you got me me crying, you go soft on ESPN so now I'm laughing, I gonna do
some thinking and then call it a day."
I watched it three times
yesterday. Florio Jr., with the gnat-like attention span of an
11-year-old, managed to sit through the whole thing. And if he
incorporates only one percent of it into his life, I can call it a day, too.
PFT PICK CHALLENGE
CHALLENGES YOU
We've made it through five
weeks of the PFT Pick Challenge. Last week, we fixed our glitch, so
the picks were saved.
Unfortunately.
I only got eight of 14 right.
So that means that there were plenty of entries in the "Meathead or
Fathead?" contest.
The winner of the drawing with
all of the folks who did better than eight of 14 was the player with the
user name "jeckert." He/she gets a Fathead product.
The winner of the drawing with
the folks who got the most right was the user with the name "schue3325."
He/she gets a free one-year subscription to Sporting News.
The winner of the "Refer a
Friend" (and, no, it's not "Reefer a Friend," Ricky) drawing was "Eric."
And of all of the folks who
correctly picked the outcome of the Steelers-Seahawks game, the winner of
the drawing (vtx1800r) gets a free copy of
The Bus: My Life In And Out Of A Helmet,
which has been made available to us at no charge by
Jerome Bettis
and by Doubleday Books.
And everyone's number of
correct picks for the week will be added to their total entries into the
end-of-season drawing for two tickets a certain game to be played at a certain date at a certain stadium in a
certain state that is hosting a certain game widely known via certain Roman
numerals. The tickets to
the certain game are provided to us at face value by our friends at
NFL.com.
So click this link,
and make your picks for Week Six. My picks are the Chiefs, Jags,
Browns, Packers, Ravens, Vikings, Eagles, Titans, Cardinals, Pats, Chargers,
Seahawks, Giants.
POSTED 9:00 a.m. EDT,
October 11, 2007
MANGINI SAYS PENNINGTON IS STILL THE
STARTER
Jets coach Eric Mangini declared on Wednesday
that quarterback Chad Pennington is still the starter, despite lingering
issues with injury and ineffectiveness.
Meanwhile, Pennington admits that he's
pressing, and that it could be affecting his performance.
"I can't try to be a superhero," Pennington
said.
But the reality is that Pennington will
continue to press because he knows that, with 21 interceptions in 20 starts
under Mangini and a second-round pick devoted to Kellen Clemens in 2006,
Mangini is waiting for the right time to make the switch.
And given that Pennington is a human being who
faces the possibility of losing something that he considers to be his
property, common sense suggests that the looming threat of a benching is
driving him to do too much.
If you don't buy that, consider Derek
Anderson's performance in Cleveland. He knows that he's merely holding
the spot for Brady Quinn, so Anderson isn't worried about losing it.
As a result, he's loose and he's relaxed and he's able to play his best
football.
Ravens cornerback Samari Rolle practiced with
the team for the first time since September 20, and
plans to play
on Sunday after a three-game absence.
Rolle missed time due to an illness that
required at one point a hospital stay. Everyone involved has been
tight-lipped about the condition, whatever it is/was, from which Rolle
suffered.
At some point along the way, a medication that
he was taking did anything but help him get better.
"To wake up one morning and think you're going
to work and end up in the hospital, it's scary," Rolle said on Wednesday.
"The medication put me back a whole week because I didn't feel good and it
made me feel worse."
Rolle's return will shore up a Ravens defense
that has been uncharacteristically porous of late, despite holding the 49ers
to only seven points in Week Five.
A QUICK RADIO PROGRAMMING
REMINDER
For those of you who enjoy the
crap we make up and post in this space, you can listen to yours truly talk
about the crap we make up and post in this space on anywhere from 15 to 25
radio spots per week.
The rest of the weekly spots
are available right here. Regular
stops currently include KFAN in Minneapolis (with P.A. and Dubay), WDAE in
Tampa (with Steve Duemig), Sporting News Radio (with Todd Wright), WFNZ in
Charlotte (with Chris McClain of "move on or move out"
fame), WBAL in Baltimore (with Steve Davis), WIP in Philly (with Glen Macnow),
1010 XL in Jacksonville (with Frank Frangie and Mike Dempsey), ESPN Radio
Atlantic City (with Mike Gill), 1570 The Zone in Louisville (with Dave
Ragone and a co-host whose name we can't remember), WNST in Baltimore (with
Drew Forrester), KMBE in Houston, Team 1200 in Ottawa, and The Brady
Ackerman Show on several stations in Florida.
POSTED 11:39 p.m. EDT,
October 10, 2007
SHOULD POLIAN BE FINED FOR OFFICIATING
REMARKS?
In response
to one of the Wednesday Morning One-Liners capably harvested by our own MDS,
a league source has raised the question of whether Colts G.M. Bill Polian should
be fined by the NFL for making comments critical of game officials.
Addressing a perceived reduction in roughing
the passer penalties this season in a weekly Q&A session on the team's web
site, Polian had this to say about the refs:
"Peyton [Manning] got
drilled in the head earlier in the year and they let it go. The
officiating department said, 'No, we don't want that called.' We
didn't get the memo on that apparently. In any event, that has been
liberalized a little bit, although that was not the case in the Monday Night
game last week. There was a little love tap on the quarterback's
shoulder and it was called. You've heard me say before that
consistency is the hobgoblin we have to deal with in officiating. That
was never more clear than Sunday [against the Buccaneers], by the way.
You had two teams that preach and coach penalty avoidance and a crew of
officials that was on top of every play. You had a great game and a
quick game. The question you ask yourself is, 'Why
can't you have that every week?’ It's puzzling. In any
event, my impression is it's a little more liberal now. We'll know at
the end of the year. Sometimes, your impression when you see snippets
of games here and there is not true when you research the data."
By saying "Why can't
you have that every week?" in connection with his team's most recent game,
Polian essentially was denigrating the officiating from one or more of the
team's prior four games.
Since any criticism of
the officials by a team official should be met with a fine, our source
believes that Polian should be fined.
And if the same
consistency that Polian wants to see in officiating applies to the
imposition of fines, he should be getting a letter from the league office
advising him of a certain salary deduction that will be reflected on his
next pay stub.
It remains to be seen,
however, whether Polian actually will be fined.
By the way, Polian
inadvertently gave the Patriots some extra motivation (as if they needed
any) for the upcoming game between the Colts and the Pats in Indianapolis.
Asked why there aren't more Colts home games in prime time, Polian said,
"NBC told us they don’t like us at home, because we tend to win by rather
large scores and that doesn't make for good TV."
New England might have
something to say about that on November 4. (As well as the Jags on
December 2, and the Titans on December 30.)
POSTED 10:47 p.m. EDT; LAST
UPDATED 11:09 p.m. EDT, October 10, 2007
REID REITERATES THAT HE'S STAYING
Eagles coach Andy Reid expanded on his recent
comments to Jay Glazer of FOX, explaining on Wednesday that the long-time
coach of the team has no plans to leave.
"I'm
here, I'm here." said Reid. "As long as the Philadelphia Eagles
want me here, I'm here."
Last week, we wrote that rumors were running
rampant of Reid's potential departure. Our pal A.J. Daulerio of
PhillyMag.com has a similar report that same day.
Reid says that any such talk is off the mark.
"It came up during the season here and I just
wanted to make sure we ended it and that the players understood that and you
folks understood that," Reid said. "It's pretty cut and dry that that
information didn't come from me. I don't know where the information
came from, but it was false.
"I'm not blog efficient, but it sounds like people can be very creative
there. That has nothing to do with me. I just wanted to make
sure people understood that."
Fine. Good. Works for us.
And, folks, we ask that you remember this one nugget of wisdom from our old
friend Nick Saban.
"I'm not going to be the Alabama coach."
I'm not saying that Reid is lying. I'm
only saying that I've learned through more than seven years in this business
(and nearly six with this site) that the things a coach says never should be
taken at face value.
If Reid were contemplating a
resignation/retirement, why would he admit to it now? Nothing good
could come of it.
So Reid's comments shouldn't put to rest any
speculation about his future with the team. Reid's comments are merely
Reid's comments. And we wouldn't expect Reid's comments to be any
different than what they were.
WEEK SIX WEDNESDAY INJURY
REPORT
Another Wednesday, another
Wednesday injury report.
Here are a few of the
notables: Panthers QB David Carr missed practice with a back injury;
Cardinals WR Anquan Boldin (hip) and WR Bryant Johnson (knee) missed
practice; Bengals RB Rudi Johnson (hamstring) missed practice; Chiefs QB
Damon Huard (shoulder) fully participated; Browns RB Jamal Lewis did not
practice due to a foot injury; Vikings QB Tarvaris Jackson was a limited
participant in practice with a groin injury.
Pats RB Laurence Maroney, who
has missed the last two games with a groin injury, continues to participate
in practice on a limited basis; Eagles RB Brian Westbrook (abdomen) fully
participated in pratice; Rams RB Steven Jackson (groin) is out again.
Titans DT Albert Haynesworth
(ankle) did not participate in practice.
Redskins WR Antwaan Randle El
missed practice with a hamstring injury.
CAMPBELL WINS FIRST PLAYER
OF THE WEEK AWARD
Redskins quarterback Jason
Campbell was named the NFC Offensive Player of the Week Award for Week Five,
giving the third-year pro from Auburn the first such award of his career.
Elsewhere in the NFC,
Cardinals cornerback Rod Hood won the Defensive Player of the Week honor,
and Cowboys kicker Nick Folk was named the Special Teams Player of the Week.
In the AFC, the Offensive
Player of the Week recipient was Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers.
Cornerback Ike Taylor of the Steelers was the Defensive Player of the Week,
and Texans kicker Kris Brown snared the Special Teams Player of the Week
prize.
POSTED 10:03 p.m. EDT,
October 10, 2007
BRIGGS WANTS TO STAY PUT
Though he previously said that he fully
intends to leave the team after 2007, Bears linebacker Lance Briggs now says
that he'd like to remain in Chicago.
Briggs loudly complained about the team's
failure to sign him to a long-term deal after he was slapped with the
franchise tag, which paid him a $7.2 million salary for the present season.
When Briggs finally signed the tender, he received a guarantee that the team
will not use the tag on him again if certain conditions are met.
Briggs plays weakside linebacker in the Tampa
2 defense, which funnels plenty of action in his direction, allowing him to
make a lot of plays. The question that some league insiders have about
Briggs is whether his production is a result of the system -- and/or the
proximity of middle linebacker Brian Urlacher.
Of course, questions regarding Briggs'
off-field potential for problems persist, especially after he crashed a
brand new Lamborghini, ran from the scene, and then reported the thing as
stolen.
POSTED 9:37 p.m. EDT,
October 10, 2007
OWENS VOWS SILENCE
The good news for the day is that Cowboys
receiver Terrell Owens isn't talking.
The bad news is that he plans to talk again
after Sunday's game against the Patriots.
Owens left a note for reporters on Wednesday
regarding his Kramer-esque vow of silence. Wrote Owens:
Though Owens'
comments could give some extra motivation to
"the other 81" (i.e., Pats receiver Randy
Moss), Moss already has plenty of reasons to
bring his best game to Big D.
First and
foremost, he's having his greatest season to
date on a team that is positioned to deliver his
first Super Bowl ring.
Second, he's still
playing for the huge contract that goes along
with having a tremendous 2007 season.
Third, Moss surely
still has a chip on his shoulder about the 1998
draft, when Dallas owner Jerry Jones supposedly
told Moss that he'd be selecting the former
Marshall wideout with the eighth overall pick.
But the 'Boys instead took defensive end Greg
Ellis, and the Moss free-fall continued, all the
way to No. 21.
Jones also has had
two other chances to gather Moss -- in 2005 and
earlier this year. And while it's easy to
conclude that Jones didn't want the headaches
that come with a big-name receiver with a
reputation for being trouble, Jones signed "the
Original 81" in 2006.
So Moss will be as
pumped for this game as any game he's ever
played. And just like his past trips
to Texas Stadium, the popcorn will be flying
once Randy starts doing his thing.
Though some believed that the Chiefs might be
making a quarterback change from Damon Huard to Brodie Croyle,
Huard apparently will keep the job, despite a shoulder injury that
knocked him out of Sunday's 17-7 loss to the Jaguars, during which K.C.
avoided an embarrassing home shutout via a last-play touchdown pass from
Croyle.
Huard underwent an MRI on his shoulder, which
revealed no structural damage.
"We'll go through practice [on Wednesday] and
see what he can do," coach Herm Edwards said on Tuesday. "He feels a
lot better. He's worked out the last two days."
Croyle was the top guy on the depth chart
during the preseason, but blew the job with some poor performances.
MORE FUN WITH EMMITT
We haven't said much about
ESPN's Emmitt Smith over the past few days. (Actually, we have.
But most of it was in the latest Monday night Live Blog.)
A few of his comments bear
repeating here.
Even before the game or the
five-hour on-air run-up to it began on Monday, Emmitt was doling out wisdom
on ESPN Radio, including this free advice to the Cowboys: "If you want
to stay perfect, you cannot go undefeated with a blemish on your record."
Then, during the hour-long
SportsCenter that spills into Monday Night Countdown, Emmitt
addressed whether the Cowboys are on the same level as the Pats and the
Colts with this inherently contradictory gobbledygook: "The Dallas
Cowboys are not far behind, they are a distant third, they're close but
they're not quite there yet."
After the game, Stu Scott
asked Emmitt and Steve Young to describe -- in two words -- what they
believed would have happened if they had been told before the game that the
Cowboys would commit six turnovers and force only one. Emmitt said,
"Cowboys lose big time."
And Emmitt also mangled one of
the all-time great sports quotes by tritely comparing Jim Valvano's courageous battle with cancer to the ability of the Cowboys to
come from behind to beat the Bills.
As anyone who ever saw
Valvano's riveting, heart-warming, and heart-breaking speech at the 1993
ESPY awards knows, from instant recall memory and without having to pull up the video on YouTube, Valvano's
key line, delivered with a resolute yet slightly
breaking voice, was: "Don't give up. Don't ever give up."
So Emmitt completed his latest
bad night by desecrating one of the phrases by which Valvano should always
be remembered when Emmitt said, "Never quit. Don't quit."
Emmitt -- we urge you to
deviate, right now, from your version of Valvano's motto.
THE BEST NINE MINUTES
YOU'LL SPEND THIS WEEK
We found on YouTube the Jim
Valvano speech from that night more than 14 years ago, and we highly recommend
watching it, in its entirety. Today, tomorrow, the next day, and
beyond.
That nine-minute investment of
time completely fulfills Coach V's suggestion that, at least once per day, we
laugh, we think, and we have our emotions moved to tears.
So here it is. One click
away.
We all know someone who has
fought cancer. Most of us know someone who has lost the battle. My mother, who was supposed to have six months and
defied the doctors by turning it into six years and six months, called me in
tears after she watched Valvano's remarks the night they first aired.
His words should stay with all
of us, and should be shared long after we're
all gone.
"Cancer can take away all my
physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind. It cannot touch my
heart. And It cannot touch my soul. And those three things are
gonna carry on forever."
We know that we spend plenty
of time in our role as unauthorized external ombudsperson/agitator ripping
at many things ESPN. But we've got plenty of respect for the Bristol
folks for supporting cancer research in the name of Valvano, and we urge all
of the readers out there (and we know how much money some of you make) to
throw a little cash toward the V Foundation. The site is
right here.
As Jimmy V said regarding
financial support of the cause, "It may not save my life. It may save
my children's lives. It may save someone you love."
POSTED 10:55 a.m. EDT; LAST
UPDATED 12:12 p.m. EDT, October 10, 2007
The Fred Flinstone look-a-like joins a depth
chart that includes starter David Carr and backup Matt Moore.
"Yabba-dabba-do I get paid?"
Carr was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2002
draft; Vinny was the top pick 15 years before that.
Per Yasinska, Testaverde has experience with Panthers
offensive coordinator Jeff Davidson from their time together in New England.
(A couple of readers tell us that's wr-wr-wr-wr-not correct.)
Still, the fact that a soon-to-be 44-year-old
quarterback is getting work demonstrates how slim the pickings are on the
open market at this position. On Tuesday, the Cardinals signed Tim
Rattay. In the offseason, the Falcons added Chris Redman, who had been
out of football since 2003.
Who's next? Kordell Stewart? Tommy
Maddox? Mark Rypien?
PFTV PONDERS THE TIME OUT
RULE
With various sock puppets
presuming that the NFL will change the rule that allows head coaches to call
a time out the instant before a field goal is kicked, in the hopes that the
ball will be snapped and a kick that doesn't count will be made, the PFTV
gang (of two) looks at the situation.
So, as we see it, there's no
need to change it -- and no effective way to do so. Instead, it should
be a factor that teams (and kickers) need to take into account as they
prepare for that last-second kick.
With that said, we'll offer up
the only feasible adjustment we can envision. If we were calling
the shots (and football fans everywhere should be glad we're not), we'd keep
the umpire on the ball prior to any field goal attempts and have him look to
the opposing coach for a set period of time. If the coach is going to
call time out, he needs to call it before the umpire steps away. After
the umpire steps away, only one of the players may call time out. (Or,
alternatively, no time out may be called by the opposing team.)
This proposed rule wouldn't
work when the team attempting the field goal is rushing to the line in an
effort to get the kick away. Under those circumstances, however, we
can't imagine the other team trying to call a time out.
Meanwhile, we're waiting for
someone to call a fake on the second attempt, after the kick that gets blown
dead by a time out. Who in the heck would ever see that one
coming?
Hawkins most recently played
for the Patriots. He was cut prior to the 2007 regular season.
Hawkins previously played for the Bengals and the Panthers.
Hawkins was busted at a gas
station by police who were responding to an argument between Hawkins and a
man who claimed that Hawkins drove into his car at a gas pump. At 3:00
a.m.
THE ULTIMATE CURE FOR
INSOMNIA
In my SportingNews.com item
regarding the Special Master decision in the Michael Vick grievance, I
mentioned that the text of the ruling is a little dry. And confusing.
Several of you with legal
backgrounds (and a few with illegal backgrounds) have asked us to post the
decision.
So we've done it. Or at
least we've tried to do it. Can one of you let me know if it works?
(Please, just one of you. Figure out among yourselves who it will be.)
It may already be time to
start thinking about
saying goodbye to some of the Jets' big-name players.
A year after Ravens coach
Brian Billick fired offensive coordinator Jim Fassel,
there's not much evidence that Billick has done any better calling the
plays than Fassel did.
Texans rookie CB Fred "Jan
Brady" Bennett says he's always heard that he needs to be more like his
college and pro teammate Dunta Robinson: "All I'd heard from my DB
coach when I got to school was 'Dunta this and Dunta that . . .
Dunta, Dunta, Dunta."
Says Cowboys coach Wade
Phillips of calling timeout just before a field goal attempt, "It's
unfair to the kicker to have to kick it twice, no matter what happens."
For a team coming off a
mediocre season, the Giants sure do have
a lot of books being written about them.
Says Bears offensive
coordinator Ron Turner of WR Devin Hester's influence on opposing defenses,
"Every time he took the field,
they were aware of where he was."
Want to be a Detroit Lions
intern? Be ready to
wash some jock straps. (And some man bras.)
One piece of good news for the
Rams: P Donnie Jones is
leading the league with a 50.6-yard average.
A pass interference penalty
against 49ers DB Shawntae Spencer was described by one of his teammates as "A
[B.S.] call, man."
Seahawks WR Deion Branch will
miss two weeks with a mid-foot sprain.
POSTED 10:12 a.m. EDT,
October 10, 2007
UNCLE RICO TO GET HIS HEISMAN AFTER ALL?
In a recent interview with 60 Minutes
(which, coincidentally, was the answer he selected on the Wonderlic question
that asked "how much time is there in a half of an hour?"), Titans
quarterback Vince Young
said that he was angry about not winning the Heisman Trophy in 2005.
As it turns out, Vince might get the sculpture
with the guy giving the stiff arm with his shoulder so far out in front of
his center of gravity that he'd crumple
like a cardboard box if he ever actually made contact.
Per the
Los Angeles Times and
Yahoo! Sports, one of the proprietors of New Era Sports & Entertainment
will cooperate with the NCAA's still-ongoing investigation into the question
of whether 2005 Heisman winner Reggie Bush received improper benefits while
still eligible to play football at USC.
Lloyd Lake reportedly will meet with the NCAA
and produce financial records and other proof that connects Bush and his
family to nearly $280,000 in benefits received during Bush's college
football career.
Per Yahoo!, Bush settled with New Era
co-founder Michael Michaels for an amount north of 200 large and south of
300. A mediation (i.e., an out-of-court settlement meeting
presided over by a neutral lawyer with no authority to issue rulings or make
decisions) between Bush and Lake was conducted in June, but no agreement
could be reached.
Lake reportedly plans to file suit this month.
But Lake has been reportedly planning to file suit since April 2006.
Sooner or later,he's going to bump up against the applicable California
statute of limitations.
The Michaels settlement reportedly prevents
him from speaking to the NCAA, a fact that further underscores the woeful
inadequacy of the NCAA's ability to investigate matters of this nature.
Indeed, the leak of the present story might
simply have been an effort by Lake and lawyer Brian Watkins to get Bush and
lawyer David Cornwell to budge from their final offer at mediation. If
that happens, and if Lake agrees to the same confidentiality provision that
Michaels accepted, Lake ultimately won't be sitting down with the NCAA.
And if that happens, Congress or
someone with real juice needs to get involved. Otherwise, any
supposedly amateur athlete will be able to receive money and other benefits
in violation of the rules, and then later buy silence from the folks from
whom he received the money.
But it's possible that Lake has decided that
he won't settle his claim. Yahoo! writes that Lake and Michaels were
angered by September 13 remarks from Bush on ESPN's Outside the Lines,
during which Bush reiterated his belief that he was the victim of an
extortion attempt. Per Yahoo!, the FBI looked into lawyer David
Cornwell's allegation of extortion and decided not to pursue the matter.
Interestingly, ESPN televised Bush's remarks
despite a threat (some might call it "extortion") from Bush's people that
Reggie would not cooperate with ESPN in the future if the segment was
aired.
So if Lake is upset and it's no longer about
the money, then perhaps Lake won't agree to settle. And, if that
happens, Vince Young might eventually get his hands on the Heisman.
Or he could try it this way, as envisioned by
our own Taco Bill.
POSTED 9:01 a.m. EDT,
October 9, 2007
VICK RULING TO RE-OPEN OPTION BONUS ISSUE?
Some Internet hack has broken down for
SportingNews.com the Special Master's ruling in the Falcons' grievance
against quarterback Mike Vick.
Said Internet hack's take on the situation is
available
right here. (We encourage you to read it so that the folks at
SportingNews.com will get an idea as to how many members of PFT Planet are
making the jump.)
For now, here's the Reader's Digest
version.
The NFL won the Vick case despite losing the
very similar Ashley Lelie case because the NFL's blue-suited barracudas
didn't raise the right arguments in the Lelie case -- but did raise
the right arguments in the Vick case.
The fact that the league got it right in Vick
could potentially allow the league to try to fix the option bonus issue the
next time a guy who received option bonus is suspended or holds out.
Any result in this regard would be temporary, because it's certain to be an
issue the next time the league and the union get together to extend the
labor contract.
We could say more about the situation here,
but we prefer that you get it
here.
POSTED 11:25 p.m. EDT,
October 9, 2007
WILLIAMS SUSPENSION COMING?
In the wake of Monday night's epic game
between the Bills and the Cowboys, plenty of folks are asking when and if
Dallas safety Roy Williams will be suspended for violating the rule that his
tackling style spawned.
In 2005, the NFL prohibited the so-called
horse-collar tackle. Williams had been one of the primary users of the
technique, which involves pulling a player down from behind by grabbing the
inside of his shoulder pads.
Williams was fined in 2006 for the move, and
hit with a $12,500 fine earlier this year for another instance of it.
On Monday night, he inexplicably avoided a
flag for a clear violation of the rule.
Another fine is a virtual certainty. But
at what point will Williams be suspended?
Former NFL safety Mark Carrier was repeatedly
fined for helmet-to-helmet hits, and eventually was suspended for failing to
comply with the rule. Thus, it makes sense to conclude that,
eventually, Williams will be suspended, too.
Unless he quits breaking the Roy Williams
rule.
POSTED 11:07 p.m. EDT,
October 9, 2007
LEINART ON IR
Two days after suffering a complete break of
his left clavicle, Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart
has landed on injured reserve.
The move ends Leinart's season, and give the
reins for the rest of the year to Kurt Warner.
Warner has led the Cardinals to a 3-2 record,
including wins over the Seahawks and the Steelers.
A separate problem for Leinart is that the
injury prevents him from satisfying one of the key thresholds for unlocking
big-money incentives in his rookie contract -- participating in at least 50
percent of the snaps.
POSTED 10:52 p.m. EDT,
October 9, 2007
RICKY IS DRIVEN BY FEAR OF JAIL?
Plenty of folks find professional motivation
in a fear of failure. For suspended NFL running back Ricky Williams,
the desire to play football apparently arises from a fear of incarceration.
Per Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports, Williams is a
party to a child-support support agreement in Florida, where modification of
the support order
might not be available for so-called self-induced changes in financial
standing.
If, in other words, it's deemed that Williams'
hooch habit is the reason for his inability to earn a living in the NFL, a
judge in Florida might refuse to scuttle Ricky's obligation to come up with
$4,200 per month for just one of his three kids.
An application for reinstatement is pending.
Williams was suspended for a year in May 2006, and his first attempt to
return was rejected.
POSTED 10:22 p.m. EDT,
October 9, 2007
MUELLER ON HOT SEAT IN MIAMI
At a time when there's plenty of speculation
as to whether Dolphins coach Cam Cameron will be one and done in Miami, the
talk in league circles is that Cameron isn't on the hot seat.
But that G.M. Randy Mueller is.
Mueller, who would have been fired if coach
Nick Saban hadn't bolted for Alabama, inherited the full personnel power
after the dust settled following the Nicktator's departure. But with
authority comes accountability, and as the Fins sink to new lows the blame
is likely to land in Mueller's lap.
The only problem with firing Mueller is that
the new G.M. will want his own head coach. But if the Fins turn it
around next year, the new G.M.'s timetable for hiring his own guy will be
delayed.
That's why we have always believed that both
the coach and the G.M. should be held to the same standard. And that
either both should go, or both should stay.
G.M. Bruce Allen announced that the move will
be made on Wednesday. Most observers expected that running back
Michael Pittman (ankle) was the person to be put on IR.
Allen said that the team will also add a
player on Wednesday -- likely another running back. With Pittman and
Cadillac Williams lost in successive weeks, the Bucs desperately need to
beef up the backfield.
Simms has been unable to regain his form after
a September 2006 splenectomy. Prior to the season, there were reports
that Simms suffered from a vertigo-like condition that was affecting his
balance. It appeared for a while that the Bucs might release Simms,
based on statements from coach Jon Gruden insisting that Simms is not hurt.
Henry was reportedly accused of eight
violations of travel restrictions, including his attendance at Bengals
training camp.
In other words, Henry has been engaged in no
new legal imbroglio (thanks, Tiki). Instead, a prosecutor was trying
to hang his or her hat on an apparent technicality.
COWBOYS-BILLS REWIND
We're adding some structure to
our PFTV segments. For starters, we have a swanky new two-second
opening graphics package.
Also, we'll be cutting and
posting the new weekly segments every Tuesday night. This week's full
complement is right here.
For starters, here's a quick
discussion of the Monday night classic between the Cowboys and the Bills.
POSTED 8:06 p.m. EDT,
October 9, 2007
MARTZ WEARING OUT HIS WELCOME IN DETROIT?
Tom Kowalski of Mlive.com reports that
tensions are rising among the Detroit Lions coaches after a 34-3 loss to
the Redskins.
Per Kowalski, defensive coaches are getting
irritated by the short, failed drives that put the defense back on the field
without much rest. There's also concern regarding Martz's failure to
incorporate rookie phenom Calvin Johnson more heavily into the offense.
"Martz can be
rigid in his ways and it's something other coaches and front
office personnel tolerate because of what he brings to the
party," Kowalski writes. "It's like the crazy old
grandfather no one in the family ever confronts because he's
loaded and nobody wants to be written out of the will."
At a time when
Martz is already trying to position himself for his next
head coaching job, this isn't a positive development.
Martz's biggest challenge is to get owners and G.M.'s to
forget the mess Martz created in St. Louis; to the extent
he's creating another mess in Motown, that will be hard to
do.
POSTED 7:49 p.m. EDT,
October 9, 2007
NO FINE FOR TRAVIS JOHNSON
Adam Schefter of NFL Network reports that
Texans defensive tackle Travis Johnson will not be fined for taunting an
unconscious Trent Green after the Dolphin's quarterback ran his head into
Johnson's knee.
Per Schefter, NFL director of football
operations Gene Washington decided that a penalty for Johnson was
appropriate, but that a fine was not necessary.
But now we're confused. The league's
2005 fine schedule includes $7,500 . . . for taunting. So if a guy is
taunting within the confines of getting flagged, he also should be taunting
within the confines of getting fined. Right?
The best/only example we can think of in this
regard is Randy Moss from a 2001 MNF game against the Giants.
The league
nailed Moss for $10,000 after he did a twirl/strut thing into the end
zone.
So we can only assume that the league realized
that Johnson's underlying point was/is valid. In certain
circumstances, blocks below the waist are bad form -- and guys who goes
bonkos when on the wrong side of such maneuvers shouldn't necessarily be
fined for doing so.
POSTED 6:35 p.m. EDT,
October 9, 2007
VICK OWES FALCONS $19.9 MILLION
In a stunning and unexpected move, Special
Master Stephen Burbank has ruled in favor of the Falcons in a dispute with
quarterback Michael Vick, concluding that Vick owes to the team $19.9
million in previously paid bonus money.
Sal Paolantonio of ESPN reports that Burbank
has made his decision, less than a week after a hearing in Philadelphia.
The reasoning for the decision is not yet
known. Most league observers believed that Vick would prevail, since
the bulk of the money that the Falcons targeted was paid out as a roster
bonus.
It could be that the facts of Vick's case
influenced the application of Burbank's legal reasoning. Though such
things technically aren't supposed to happen, they happen all the time in
the legal profession.
Vick and the NFLPA will be able to appeal the
decision to Judge David Doty, who still retains jurisdiction over the
litigation that spawned the current Collective Bargaining Agreement more
than 14 years ago. Vick would also have appellate rights beyond Judge
Doty, to a Circuit Court of Appeals.
POSTED 4:41 p.m. EDT,
October 9, 2007
JOSEPH SUSPENDED
The Cincinnati Bengals have announced that
cornerback Johnathan Joseph has been suspended for one game and fined for an
additional game check due to an arrest for marijuana possession.
Joseph entered a diversionary program, which
apparently counts as a guilty plea in the eyes of the league.
Arrests for the violation of drug laws are no
longer reviewed under the Personal Conduct Policy; instead, such matters
fall within the purview of the substance abuse policy.
Under the substance abuse policy, Joseph also
will automatically forfeit 1/17th of his 2007 signing bonus proration.
He was the Bengals' first-round draft pick in 2006.
The reason for the alleged violation is
unclear. Typically, the legal standard in proceedings of this nature
is not proof of guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, but whether the evidence
points more likely than not to the fact that the defendant engaged in the
behavior.
Also, the decision as to whether there was a
violation of probation usually is made by the judge, not by a jury.
Henry is serving two years probation for a
weapons charge. At the time he was arrested, he was wearing his
Bengals jersey.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Henry
for eight games due to a history of off-field misconduct. Though the
probation violation, if proven, is not a new crime, it might constitute
enough of a "run-in"
with law enforcement to result in further punishment, up to and including a
lifetime banishment.
POSTED 4:19 p.m. EDT,
October 9, 2007
PRO-PLAYER CLIMATE MAKING LIFE PROBLEMATIC
FOR PETRINO?
Falcons coach Bobby Petrino can't be feeling
good about his decision to abandon the "my way or a foot up your ass and
then my way" comfort of NCAA football for the inmate-run-asylum that is life
in the NFL.
Not every team has created an atmosphere in
which the players have more juice than the head coach with ownership.
But Petrino picked one of the few franchises at which this principle
applies.
It began when owner Arthur Blank was pushing
Mike Vick's wheelchair four years ago. It continued as Blank and G.M.
Rich McKay chronically made excuses for Vick's questionable conduct,
changing their tune only when it was obvious that Vick had stepped deep into
some of the stuff with which those 50-plus dogs had been littering his lawn.
Even with Vick gone, there are signs that the
deeper problem still exists.
A few weeks ago, the Falcons signed former
Jaguars quarterback Byron Leftwich a couple of days after playing the
Jaguars, in a move that had all the signs of a decision imposed on Petrino
by the front office. Really, if the coaching staff had wanted Leftwich,
a move would have been made before the Jacksonville game, at which time
Byron's brain could have been picked.
Also, in Petrino's showdown with cornerback
DeAngelo Hall, Hall came out of the scrum with a $100,000 fine and a
one-quarter benching. But we've got a feeling that Petrino wanted to
send a stronger statement to Hall by, at a minimum, suspending him for a
game, without pay.
Then came the ill-advised comments from tight
end Alge Crumpler, who suggested that Petrino presently prefers developing
younger players to winning football games. Multiple league insiders
believe that Crumpler should have been fined for conduct detrimental to the
team.
And we agree.
How can Petrino take control of the locker
room when his only response to grossly inflammatory remarks from one of the
supposed leaders of the team is met only with an "aw, shucks, we'd rather he
not say those things to the press"?
To eradicate this type of mentality, ownership
needs to make an unequivocal commitment to the folks who run the football
operation. And, ideally, ownership needs a G.M. who is less concerned
about sucking up to the boss and more concerned about giving the guy who
signs the checks good advice as to the importance of aligning not with the
star players, but with the head coach.
Players, like kids, will do whatever they
think they can get away with. Crumpler has been with the Falcons long
enough to know that he could say what he said, and that someone higher than
the head coach would keep the head coach from doing in Atlanta what the head
coach would have done in Louisville last year if similar remarks had come
from the mouth of one of his starting seniors.
After Dallas completed a stirring comeback win
against the Buffalo Bills on Monday night, ESPN's Tony Kornheiser asked what
else the Bills could have done to win the game (or words to that effect).
Well, they could have done plenty.
For starters, an offensive touchdown at some
point in the game would have been a nice touch. As it stood, the
Bills' offense accounted for three points. The defense and the
specials teams scored 21.
More importantly, settling for three points
after running another 40 seconds or so off of the clock with less than seven
minutes to play would have represented a huge advantage for the home team.
We're referring to the point at which the
Bills had the ball on the Dallas 11, facing third and eight. Instead
of running between the tackles and setting up a chip-shot three-pointer,
rookie Trent Edwards was asked to pass the ball. He threw an
ill-advised pass that was tipped, picked off, and returned deep into Buffalo
territory.
The gaffe was quickly forgotten because
Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo quickly threw his fifth interception of the
evening. But after the Bills punted the ball back to the Cowboys,
there was more than enough time for Dallas not only to mount what should
have been the game-tying drive, but also to recover an onside kick and drive
into field-goal range for the 53-yard boomer that snatched victory from the
jaws of not victory. (We always screw that one up.)
The Edwards interception came on a play that
began with six minutes and 21 seconds on the clock (our friends at NFL.com
have
the full play-by-play). If Buffalo had instead called a run that
had finished short of the orange Festivus pole, the play would have finished
at 6:18. Allowing five seconds for the ball to be set and the
play-clock to commence, the Bills could have snapped the ball for the field
goal try at roughly 5:34, and the play would have ended with 5:30 left.
Assuming that the kick had sailed between the
yellow Festivus poles, the Bills would have been up by 11 points, and Dallas
would have had to manage two scoring drives to tie the game.
Though they had, in the end, enough time to
drive down the field twice, the failed two-point conversion would have
forced Dallas to go for a touchdown at the end of the game.
We're not saying that it would have been
impossible for the Cowboys to have won the game, but it would have been
considerably more difficult.
Also, we're still amazed by the failure of the
Bills to put defensive backs in the faces of the receivers on the last snap
that the Dallas offense took with seven seconds on the clock. Instead,
the defense pulled back to guard against a deep pass, allowing a quick
eight-yard out to Patrick Crayton that moved the Nick Folk kick from a
near-record 61 yards to 53.
So the Bills have only themselves to blame for
this one. When Dick Jauron (who unfortunately didn't pull a Dennis
Green in his post-game presser) bemoaned the fact that the team didn't make
one more play, the play to which he primarily should have been referring is
the one that was called when the Bills could have iced the game with less
than six minutes to play.
KUBIAK IS A HYPOCRITE
Our own MDS, while filling in
for yours truly for a few hours on Tuesday, penned an item about Texan coach
Gary Kubiak's
interest in outlawing the move that resulting in Fins quarterback Trent
Green taking a blind cut at Houston defensive tackle Travis Johnson's legs
while Johnson was pursuing receiver Ted Ginn during a busted play.
MDS was far more charitable to
Kubiak than I intend to be.
Kubiak complaining about a
guys blocking other guys at the knees is, in my opinion, no different than
Jets coach Eric Mangini complaining about the Patriots cheating.
Both men profited from the
very actions that they now renounce.
For Mangini, his rise from
video slappy to head coach of the Jets was fueled in large part by the
success of the team that was doing the things about which Mangini apparently
blew the whistle. For Kubiak, his years of success in Denver were the
result of an offensive blocking system based in part on diving at the legs
of defensive players.
Do we think that a player
should take out a guy's legs on a back-side play? No. We'd
prefer to see a shoulder-to-shoulder blast-off.
And please spare us the
"Johnson outweighs Green by 100 pounds" routine. With Johnson not
braced to deliver (or receive) a blow, Green could have generated one of the
all-time great highlights if he had de-cleated an unwary Johnson with a
well-placed left shoulder to Johnson's abdomen.
With that said, neither Travis
nor Kubiak should be showing up at the photo shoot for the poster that
informs the public on the perils of low blocks. Johnson squandered any
goodwill he might have generated by acting like a fool after the play (and
after the game), and Kubiak has no more authority to argue against low
blocks than Ricky Williams has to complain about pot fumes from his
neighbor's double-wide.
POSTED 12:28 p.m. EDT,
October 9, 2007
LIONS COULD TRADE TATUM BELL
by Michael David Smith
The Lions and Broncos have already worked out
one trade this year involving running back Tatum Bell, who was sent to
Detroit in the off-season, along with offensive lineman George Foster, in
exchange for cornerback Dre' Bly.
But could the Lions now trade Bell back to the
Broncos?
David Birkett of the Oakland Press
reports that Lions coach Rod Marinelli is using this week's bye to evaluate
the running back rotation, and that with Kevin Jones and T.J. Duckett both
getting healthier, Bell might be the odd man out. The Broncos, of course,
would lose their starting running back if Travis Henry fails in his current
bid to avoid a one-year NFL suspension, and they might be interested in
acquiring a back who already knows the offense.
"I like it here," Bell told Birkett. "I
like it where we're going. I think we're building, we got something special.
I want to be a part of this, but if it don't work out
I just got to move on." [Editor's note: Or move out.]
Bell has started all five games this season,
but he is clearly being phased out of the offense. On Sunday, he never got
the ball in the second half.
"We got to be the only team in the league
where the starting running back don't even play the whole second half," Bell
said. "I don't know if they're trying to tell me something or what."
If the Lions do try to trade Bell, they could
also get interest from the Buccaneers, who have lost Cadillac Williams for
the season and Michael Pittman for six to eight weeks.
The NFL trade deadline is 4:00 p.m. on October 16.
POSTED 11:46 a.m. EDT,
October 9, 2007
TEXANS COACH WANTS LOW BLOCKS OUTLAWED
by Michael David Smith
After Dolphins quarterback Trent Green
suffered a concussion while delivering a low block to Texans defensive
tackle Travis Johnson, Johnson expressed anger at Green both on the field
and in the locker room afterward. Johnson didn't appreciate how people
seemed a lot more concerned about Green's head than they did about Johnson's
knee.
Johnson had an MRI on the knee on Monday and
it checked out fine, but that hasn't stopped the Texans from talking about
Green's block. Texans coach Gary Kubiak tells Megan Manfull of the
Houston Chronicle that he talked to league officials about the block and
that while the league told him Green's block was legal, he hopes there's a
rule change next year.
"First off, the league told me that
the block's a legal block — his head's in position — it's a legal
block," Kubiak told Manfull. "I understand that, but in my opinion it's
created a situation I think we need to look at, too.
"Maybe something is done down the road about those types of plays taking
place behind the line of scrimmage. I don't know, but I would like to see
them just take a look at it. Our competition committee has been awesome. I
know as coaches we're looking at that all the time in the offseason, and
there are plays that come up that may change things.
"I don't know. I'm not one to say something has to change. I think it's good
that we all take a look at it."
Quite a few NFL defensive linemen will think
Kubiak is a little late to the party on this -- Kubiak spent 20 years as a
backup quarterback and offensive coordinator in Denver, where the Broncos'
offensive line was infamous for low blocks that opposing defensive linemen
considered dirty.
But just because he never said anything about
low blocks in Denver doesn't mean he's wrong to say something about them
now. Rules changes to protect players from injuries shouldn't begin and end
with quarterbacks.
STEINBACH CALLS VRABEL 'CLASSLESS'
by Michael David Smith
Browns guard Eric Steinbach is furious with
Patriots linebacker Mike Vrabel for a hit Vrabel delivered late in Sunday's
game after the Browns spiked the ball to stop the clock.
Although it was garbage time with the Patriots
up 34-17, both the Browns and Patriots had their starters on the field, and
the Browns were running a hurry-up offense when quarterback Derek Anderson
spiked the ball with 11 seconds left. After the spike, Vrabel hit Browns
left tackle Joe Thomas, knocking him back, and then knocked Anderson down
with a hit to the back of Anderson's leg. For some reason, no flags were
thrown, and the Browns were not pleased.
"Classless. You can quote me on that,'' Steinbach said, as reported by Marla
Ridenour of the Akron Beacon Journal. ''To dive for a guy's knees
like that, to almost take out the quarterback when the game is already over
with?''
Whether the game was already over with or not
is irrelevant -- the Browns had their first-team offense on the field trying
their hardest to score, so there's nothing wrong with the Patriots having
their first-team defense on the field trying to keep them from scoring. But
it's extremely strange that the officials didn't throw any flags, either on Vrabel or on Steinbach or Browns center Hank Fraley, both of whom hit Vrabel
in retaliation. Steinbach said he hopes the league takes action.
''You've got to get fined for that,''
Steinbach said, per the Beacon Journal. ''Maybe he doesn't care about
a $5,000 fine, but that's $5,000. I wouldn't want that reputation.''
Steinbach also expressed anger that the
Patriots are often referred to as the "model franchise."
"Everyone looks up to them in the NFL like
they're the team that does everything right,'' Steinbach said. ''How are you
going to have a player like that go and do that at the end of the game? That
just doesn't show professionalism. I don't care if the game is won or lost,
you don't do a move like that.''
TUESDAY MORNING
ONE-PER-CLUB ONE-LINERS
by Michael David Smith
When asked if he was nervous
before the game-winning field goal, Cowboys K Nick Folk said, "No,
I'm nervous on the 20-yarders. This one you just kick it."
Dolphins coach Cam Cameron
blames himself for poor play calling in Sunday's loss to the Texans.
He's currently on the
Physically Unable to Perform list, but Patriots WR Troy Brown says "I'm
doing OK."
Packers C Scott Wells will
miss at least one game and possibly more after
suffering a
broken eye socket Sunday night.
Vikings QB Tarvaris Jackson
says his groin feels "good
enough" to return after a two-game absence.
Responding to critical
comments from TE Alge Crumpler, Falcons coach Bobby Petrino said, "We don't
like to put things like that in the press. I'd rather him
walk into my office if he had something to say."
"I'm a fullback. That kind of goes with
the territory, you are always going to have some kind of pain or injury that
you have to push through," Strong said. "[But] at the same time, I want to
be smart. I don't want to do anything that would jeopardize my
long-term quality of health."
The development leaves the Seahawks and running
back Shaun Alexander without the bruising lead blocker who helped clear
bodies for Alexander during his 2005 MVP season.
Since then, Alexander has been less effective.
The departure of Strong only makes matters worse.
POSTED 7:27 p.m. EDT,
October 8, 2007
DIERDORF DENIES ON-AIR BURP
Hall of Fame offensive lineman and long-time
broadcaster Dan Dierdorf tells us that he did not burp into his microphone
early in Sunday's game between the Browns and the Patriots.
"Mike, if
I were to burp into a microphone that is 1/2-inch from my mouth, believe me,
it would be louder than what was picked up by one of our remote
microphones," Dierdorf said via e-mail. "Your pinning that pathetic effort
on me is an insult to all offensive linemen, past and present."
That's actually pretty funny. We think
we like this guy.
And, all kidding aside, Dierdorf said that the
sound didn't come from him.
"Every
network has remote microphones placed all around the stadium," Dierdorf
added. "I have no idea where it came from but I heard it in my headset
when it happened."
We'll give Dierdorf the benefit of the doubt
on this one, especially since the same explanation was given last year when
Bryant Gumbel's apparent on-air gas release was attributed to a similar
phenomenon.
With that said, these networks need to have
better control over their microphones. Eventually, someone is going to
do something more than burp into one of them.
POSTED 7:17 p.m. EDT,
October 8, 2007
BUYER BEWARE ON HAYNESWORTH
Though Titans defensive tackle Albert
Haynesworth created a ton of buzz with his uncannily-timed belly flop over
the line to stifle a potential game-tying score against the Falcons, one
league source has offered up two words to keep in mind.
"Contract. Year."
Haynesworth is in the final season of his
rookie deal, and there's reason to believe that Haynesworth is playing like
a beast this year only in the hopes of getting a huge contract. And
the concern is that, once he does, he'll go back to being just a guy.
Past examples of this phenomenon among
defensive linemen include guys like Daryl Gardener, Dan Wilkinson, Gerard
Warren, and Jason Ferguson.
POSTED 5:24 p.m. EDT,
October 8, 2007
BRONCOS LOSE NALEN
Denver Broncos center Tom Nalen has been
lost for the rest of the
season with a torn biceps. The long-time starter hasn't missed a
game in nearly five years.
Nalen has been with the Broncos since 1994,
and has appeared in 194 regular-season games, with 188 starters.
He is under contract through 2008, at a base
salary next season of $1.9 million.
Per the team's depth chart, the replacement
for Nalen is Chris Myers, a fifth-round draft pick in 2006.
POSTED 5:14 p.m. EDT,
October 8, 2007
HOLMES SAYS L.J. NEEDS TO BE "MORE
CREATIVE"
Chiefs running back Priest Holmes, who was one
of the best in the business just a few years ago, has some advice for the
guy who has taken his place as the go-to back in Kansas City.
He needs to liven things up.
“I
talk to Larry about being more creative," Holmes said on Sunday,
according to the Kansas City Star. "I think that's something he
needs to work on. When the other team is putting everything to trying
to stop you, you can't get frustrated. That's the worst thing you can
do. You have to study them and find their weaknesses, and exploit
those. There are no excuses. You have to find a way to get
yards. And when you get your opening, you have to hit the home run."
Holmes remarks are intriguing, given that he
said during Johnson's training-camp holdout that Holmes would gladly assume
the duties that L.J. was ignoring, along with the money.
In a week, Holmes is eligible to emerge from
the PUP list. And he surely can't do any worse that Johnson's
nine-carry, 12-yard effort against Jacksonville.
It remains to be seen whether Johnson heeds,
or appreciates, the unsolicited remarks from Holmes. Our guess is that
Johnson will be inclined to tell Holmes to shut up and step aside, because
his day in the sunlight is over.
The only problem is that, if Johnson doesn't
turn things around, his own day will end sooner than he ever thought it
would.
POSTED 3:23 p.m. EDT,
October 8, 2007
FALCONS STICKING WITH HARRINGTON
Despite a fourth-quarter benching of
quarterback Joey Harrington, who was replaced by Byron Leftwich, Falcons
coach Bobby Petrino said on Monday that he's sticking with Harrington as the
starter.
"I think it was the right thing to do,"
Petrino said of the decision to pull Harrington.
Petrino also addressed comments from tight end
Alge Crumpler, who suggested that veteran players are being phased out and
that the coaching staff might be more interested in developing young players
than winning.
"Yeah, I spoke with Alge this morning, and we
had a good conversation," Petrino said. "There's one agenda here by
the coaching staff, and that's to win every week. Win the game that
we're playing that week and that's it. That's what we're trying to do.
I think we had a good conversation, understand that, you know, we don't like
to put things like that in the press. I'd rather him walk into my
office if he had something to say."
Video of the comments is available on NFL.com.
Click the ads on this page to get there.
POSTED 1:55 p.m. EDT; LAST
UPDATED 2:47 p.m. EDT, October 8, 2007
DELHOMME IS DONE
Pat Yasinskas of the Charlotte Observer
reports that Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme
will undergo
elbow surgery and miss the rest of the season.
Meanwhile, Adam Schefter of NFL Network
reports that Delhomme will have the Tommy John procedure, which uses a
tendon from elsewhere in the body to replace the ulnar collateral ligament.
Per Schefter, Delhomme will take his time to
recover, miss 7-9 months of action, and will be healed in time for training
camp.
Delhomme is under contract for two more
seasons. He's due to earn a base salary of $3.69 million in 2008, and
$5.325 million in 2009.
David Carr will continue to be the starter.
The backup is Matt Moore. (If you said "who?" after reading that name,
you probably now have something on common with Panthers owner Jerry
Richardson.)
Schefter reported last week that, while the
team was describing Delhomme's status as "day-to-day," the true assessment
was more like "week-to-week" or "month-to-month."
If it means he won't be doing
the pro football games anymore, we're all for it.
The fastidious Buck is like a
martini at a tailgate party who thinks he's a beer. Unlike ESPN's Mike
Greenberg, an annoying shemale who pokes fun at his ways (which somehow
makes him even more annoying), Buck plays the aspiring Dorian Gray routine
with a straight face.
So, yeah, if FOX is moving him
from a show we always watch to one we'd never watch, it can only be a good
thing.
USA TODAY RECOGNIZES
OUR CAMPAIGN AGAINST EMMITT
Michael McCarthy of USA
Today writes in Monday's edition about the struggles of athletes who
made it look easy trying a new profession that is anything but.
Observes McCarthy of ESPN's
Emmitt Smith: "Smith
fumbled for words during ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown. At
one point, he couldn't remember the name of New England Patriots running
back Sammy Morris -- so he dropped his eyes from the camera to check his
notes. The director, either in sympathy or alarm, pulled back to a
wide shot from a close-up."
It wasn't Emmitt's only
mistake. When he wasn't forgetting names, he was remembering them
incorrectly. Jags defensive tackle Marcus Stroud was, for a moment on
Emmitt's lips, "Marcus Strauss." And when Emmitt remembered the name
of the aforementioned Morris later in the show, Emmitt called him "Sammy
Morrison."
Stephanie Druley, the
coordinating producer of Countdown says that forgetting names "can
happen to anybody."
Sure, it can. But it's
not supposed to happen to folks who are paid to know the names.
Especially when it's known before the show goes live what the topics will
be.
Emmitt also committed a
substantive gaffe on Sunday, proclaiming that Texans running back Ahman
Green would play when all reports and indications were that he'd miss the
game against the Dolphins.
And McCarthy even gave us a
mention for our campaign to get Emmitt ousted: "Despite calls for ESPN
to drop Smith by bloggers like ProFootballTalk.com, Druley says it's
'premature' to consider changes. 'He's getting better every week.
He's working very hard,' she says."
He's not getting better, Steph.
You're just getting numb. And by saying that he's working hard you're
taking away his only plausible excuse for being so bad.
Besides, what else would
Druley or anyone else involved in the production of the show say? When
the season ends, Emmitt won't be the one who has to answer the tough
questions about why he was hired in the first place.
POSTED 12:47 p.m. EDT,
October 8, 2007
REID, EAGLES PROTESTING TOO
MUCH?
The Philadelphia Eagles' upper
management spent a chunk of the bye week trying to throw water on rumors
that coach Andy Reid is going to resign at the end of the season, or perhaps
sooner.
Last week, club president Joe
Banner addressed the situation. Over the weekend, Reid himself called
Jay Glazer of FOX and said, "The
only way I don't finish up coaching this year is if I die. Are you
kidding me? I don't know where this story came from, how it started,
but it couldn't be any further from the truth. I am definitely not
stepping away!
"It's amazing how this story
came up and then got legs," Reid added, "but there's no way."
"The one thing I've learned
throughout this whole thing is that I'm not alone in dealing with family
issues," Reid said. "There are people who own businesses, run
corporations, and they have problems too but don't walk away. Everyone
has family or personal issues, but they don't quit their jobs."
Here's our take.
First, the whole "other people
deal with this stuff, too" routine sounds like a P.R. strategy developed
behind closed doors to prevent the rumors of a resignation from becoming, if
the team continues to falter, an outcry from the fans and/or the media that
the rumors should come to fruition.
Second, we don't think that
the ability of folks in other lines of work to continue working applies in
this case. The NFL is a unique industry with 32 companies caught in
the ultimate zero-sum competition. For every team (and coach) that
succeeds, another one doesn't. So if the Eagles fail under a coach who
clearly cannot give that same "every-waking-moment" attention to the job
that the 31 others bring to the table, then the external pressure will grow
to put internal pressure on Reid to call it a day.
Is it fair? No. As
one media insider recently told us, there are plenty of NFL head coaches
with troubled children. Reid just happens to be the only one whose
kids' problems become public.
Second, it sounds like Reid
has given some serious thought to the possibility of stepping aside.
How else could he have worked through the logic that other people in
stressful jobs stand firm in the face of adversity?
Third, Reid's comments to
Glazer focus only on the present season. Reid says nothing at all
about 2008.
So here's where this story
came from. Reid's family issues required him to take some time off
earlier in the year, a move that is unprecedented in the 12-month-per-year
free-agency era. Since then, the family issues haven't gotten a lot
better. And now the team's performance is showing signs of coaching
lapses.
Is it so unbelievable under
these circumstances that rumors of Reid's resignation would circulate?
In our view, the best way for
the team to kill the rumors is not through talking points (or by
commissioning local radio personalities or beat writers to denigrate those
who mention the rumors), but by proving week in and week out that the
coach's distractions aren't affecting the bottom line.
POSTED 12:07 p.m. EDT,
October 8, 2007
PITTMAN OUT 6-8 WEEKS
A week after losing starting tailback Cadillac
Williams for the year with a ruptured patellar tendon, the Tampa Bay
Buccaneers will now be without the services of Michael Pittman
for 6-8 weeks,
according to our friends at PewterReport.com.
Pittman suffered what's being described as a
serious ankle injury on Sunday against the Colts.
Carrying the load will be Earnest Graham and
rookie Kenneth Darby. The development might also prompt the Bucs to
sweeten the pot in their efforts to acquire Mewelde Moore from the Vikings.
Tampa reportedly has offered a sixth-round
pick for Moore, who's in the final year of his rookie deal and who is being
phased out in Minnesota. It makes plenty of sense for the Vikes to
make the best possible deal that they can for him.
The ancillary (thanks, Tiki) benefit for the
Vikes is that the Bucs play the Lions on October 21. To the extent
that Minnesota has a chance to get back into the playoff picture (try not to
blow Pepsi out your nose after reading that), it's in the Vikings' interests
for the Bucs to hand an "L" on the Lions. Tampa faces no other NFC
North team this season.
POSTED 9:15 a.m. EDT; LAST
UPDATED 10:44 a.m. EDT, October 8, 2007
ALGE GOES OFF
Falcons tight end Alge Crumpler isn't happy
with the current direction of the team under new coach Bobby Petrino.
And Crumpler isn't afraid to say so.
He said so after Sunday's 20-13 loss at
Tennessee.
"I've never been in a game where we had that
many opportunities — and a miracle, with a [botched] punt — and we still
couldn’t score,” tight end Alge Crumpler said, according to the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution. "When we cross the 50, we're the worst
offense in the National Football League.
"We're trying to trust them. They keep telling us, 'Trust us, trust
us.' We've been trying to trust them the whole time."
Crumpler also thinks that the new coaching
staff is in the process of phasing out the veteran players.
"It's weird. This is a young guys' game
we're playing now. It's been taken out of our hands. . . . It's
just been taken out of the veterans' hands. When we get into
situations, we're not being given opportunities.
"It just seems like the agenda that we have offensively is preparing the
guys that we have in this locker room for the future. I'm not saying
the coach isn't trying to win the game. But there just seems to be too
much going on."
There have been whispers throughout the league that Petrino is hoping to
have the Falcons in position to draft Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm in
2008. But with Brohm expected to be at the top of the board, the
Falcons need to have a bad season in order to secure the opportunity to get
him.
We're not suggesting that Petrino or the
Falcons would intentionally lay down in an effort to better position
themselves to bag Brohm. But when a guy like Crumpler thinks that the
best players aren't getting a chance to make things happen at critical
moments, it's hard not to at least ponder the possibility that winning as
many games as possible in 2007 isn't at the top of Petrino's list of
priorities.
DIERDORF'S ON-AIR BELCH
As mentioned by Howard Eskin's
favorite Internet hack in a
Ten-Pack column for SportingNews.com, Dan Dierdorf of CBS apparently
burped into his microphone during Sunday's game between the Browns and the
Patriots.
And thanks to a DVR, a laptop,
and a microphone, we're able to bring you the
audio of the moment.
Hurry up and have a listen,
before we get the cease-and-desist letter.
Then again, we were never
asked to remove this clip from last year's NFL Network broadcast, during
which Bryant Gumbel
apparently let one fly.
MONDAY MORNING ONE-PER-CLUB
ONE-LINERS by Michael
David Smith
It says something about how
disappointing Bears RB Cedric Benson has been that his 27-carry, 64-yard
performance against the Packers is
considered a positive sign.
Asked about being used only
sparingly against the Redskins, Lions RB Kevin Jones said, "I
don't agree with that. I think I need to be in there consistently
getting touches so I can get into the rhythm of the game."
Rams return man Dante Hall
says of the team's first five games, "It just seems like week in, week out,
it just falls apart."
When asked what's wrong with
his offense, 49ers coach Mike Nolan said, "I wouldn't pinpoint any one
individual. Right now
everybody is a part of
the mess."
Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren
says he's not sure how long his team will be without WR Deion Branch and FB
Mack Strong, both of whom
suffered injuries against the Steelers on Sunday.
Dolphins S Camerion Worrell
had a
bad day against the Texans.
Patriots S Rodney Harrison
wasn't on the starting defense but got a lot of playing time in his
first game back from a four-game suspension.
When asked about the
possibility of getting benched, Jets QB Chad Pennington said, "I
don't have any concern."
Texans K Kris Brown
took a painkilling shot at halftime because of an injury to the heel on
his plant foot; he went on to tie the NFL record for 50-yard field goals in
one game.
Says Colts TE Dallas Clark of
the effects of a hit from Buccaneers S Tanard Jackson, "I couldn't breathe
for a while and
it was kind of freaking me out."
PACMAN STILL GETTING BAD ADVICE (OR
IGNORING GOOD ADVICE)
With agent Michael Huyghue renouncing his
practice in order to serve as the first commissioner of the UFL, it's not
clear who, if anyone, is advising Huyghue client Pacman Jones on the right
way -- and the wrong way -- to get back in the good graces of the National
Football League.
If anyone is advising Jones, he's either
getting bad advice, or he's ignoring good advice, in connection with the
question of the things he should say and do in order to resume his football
career.
Rule No. 1, Pacman? Don't give
interviews regarding how confident you are that your full-season suspension
will be reduced to 10 games.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
reported over the weekend that Jones believes he qualifies for an early
return to the league.
"I
think I did enough," Jones said. "I did pretty much everything
[NFL Commissioner Roger] Goodell asked me to do. So, all I can do is
just wait and go back to speak to him."
Apart from the fact that Jones forced the
Titans to file suit to block him from becoming a pro wrestler, which we
heard at the time was enough to prevent Goodell from letting Pacman return
early, felony charges in Las Vegas are still pending against him. And
it was clear at the time that the suspension was announced that Jones'
return would be
tied directly to the resolution of those charges in his favor.
Another issue is whether the Titans want him.
We're convinced that they don't. So if he's reinstated after the trade
deadline, the team's options are limited to welcoming him back, or cutting
him. Thus, we think that the Titans would prefer a reinstatement to
come after the 2007 season, at which time Jones could be traded to a team
with a coach who thinks he'll be the guy to get through to Pacman.
So the end result, in our view, is that Pacman
won't be putting a helmet back on until 2008, at the earliest. And
when he does, it won't have a "T" on the side.
At a time when Texans defensive tackle Travis
Johnson is being widely criticized for talking smack to an unconscious man,
a league source tells us that Johnson isn't the only guy in Houston who is
upset about the events that preceded Trent Green's most recent exit from the
field on a stretcher.
Per the source, multiple members of the
Texans' organization are pissed off at Green for trying to take out
Johnson's knees via a back-side block on a busted play.
Johnson drew a flag for taunting as he
screamed and gestured at Green's motionless body. After the game,
Johnson remained defiant.
"At 12:01, I had a lot of
respect for Trent Green,'' Johnson said. "At 12:20,
I
said [expletive] Trent Green. To hit my knee like that, that's
uncalled for. He's like the scarecrow -- he wants to get courage while
I'm not looking and hit me in my knee instead of trying to hit me in my
head. God don't like ugly -- you know what I mean?"
[UPDATE:
Says a reader, "Um, the scarecrow
wanted a brain. The lions wanted the courage, dumbass."]
"My knee ain't never hurt like
it hurt today. When I was up in the air, looking at the ceiling, I was
wondering what was going to happen if I came down on my head. It was a
dirty play. Football's not like that. If you want to hit me, hit
me in my shoulders, not my knees. That just showed what type of man he
is.''
Though Johnson's message
reduces the sympathy (or is it empathy?) that anyone might have for him, his
point is valid. Low blocks on guys who aren't looking is frowned upon
in league circles. Even though Green paid a price for taking on
Johnson's knee with his head, Green probably shouldn't have engaged Johnson
below the waist when Johnson didn't see it coming.
Meanwhile, Peter King of NBC
reported on NBC's Football Night in America that Green is alert and
conscious, but that he'll have to pass a neurological test before he can
return to action.
If he does, Green will prove
teammate Jason Taylor wrong. Before Green joined the Fins, Taylor said
this to Sports Illustrated: "This is off the record -- oh, what
the hell, it’s on the record: He'd better not get hit. One big hit,
and he could be scrambled eggs."
TEN-PACK IS UP
Sundays are fairly hectic
here at PFT headquarters. Between tracking all of the pregame shows
and keeping tabs on the noteworthy injuries and watching the games and
updating the site, yours truly has to bang out ten takes on the day's action
for our friends at SportingNews.com.
I'm not complaining, nor
fishing for pity. I'm just trying to come up with a way to mention
that a new Ten-Pack is up on SportingNews.com without it looking like an
obvious plug.
The left-handed thrower suffered a fracture of
the left collarbone. Whisenhunt said that Leinart will be out
indefinitely.
During ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown,
Chris Mortensen mentioned in conjunction with the team's musical chairs
routine that one of the reasons for Leinart's frustration could be that his
periodic absences are hurting his ability to cash in on incentive payments
that are based in part on him participating in 50 percent of the offensive
snaps in 2008. Missing several weeks of action altogether could put
that proposition in further jeopardy, especially if Warner performs well in
the starting role.
Leinart also might want to talk to Early
Hickey about the possible connection between his comments to Mike Silver of
Yahoo! Sports, Leinart's later effort to suggest that Silver made them up,
and the injury.
POSTED 4:14 p.m. EDT,
October 7, 2007
SAINTS LOSE ANOTHER ONE
The New Orleans Saints have dropped to 0-4 on
the year after a last-second, 53-yard field goal from John Kasay lifted the
Panthers to a 16-13 win.
The win improves the Panthers' record to 3-2.
Reggie Bush had 21 carries for 67 yards and
nine pass receptions for 52 yards.
POSTED 4:04 p.m. EDT,
October 7, 2007
TEXANS KEEP FINS WINLESS
With a 57-yard field goal as time expired,
Kris Brown took the Texans to their third win of the season.
The kick from Brown -- his third field goal of
more than 50 yards on the day -- dropped the Miami Dolphins to 0-5 on the
season.
Amazingly, Miami coach Cam Cameron opted not
to take a timeout just was the Texans were preparing to snap the ball for
the game-winning kick. It would have been difficult for Brown to
deliver another 57-yarder if Cameron had managed to get the whistle blown
too late for Brown and the Texans to stop the play.
POSTED 3:54 p.m. EDT,
October 7, 2007
LEFTWICH PLAYING FOR FALCONS
Though it's not quite clear to us why he's in
the game, quarterback Byron Leftwich has made his debut for the Falcons.
Leftwich was listed as the No. 3 quarterback.
If he had entered the game at any point prior to the fourth quarter, neither
Joey Harrington nor Chris Redman could have returned.
The play-by-play on NFL.com doesn't indicate
that Harrington, the starter, had been injured. Thus, apparently,
Harrington was benched for Leftwich, who jumped over Redman.
For the day, Harrington has completed 16 of 31
passes for 87 yards, and an interception that was returned for a touchdown.
In his first drive, Leftwich was 2-for-4 for 28 yards.
By throwing an interception on the first drive
after the Chiefs fell behind the Jaguars by 17 points, Kansas City starting
quarterback Damon Huard was yanked for Brodie Croyle.
The move nearly came two weeks ago, with the
Chiefs trailing the Vikings by ten in the second half of their Week Three
game. But Huard got it together, and then led the team to a surprising
road win over the Chargers.
But Sunday's performance blew all of that
goodwill Huard had generated. It didn't help that Larry Johnson
continues to sputter.
At one point in the preseason, the starting
job was Brodie Croyle's to lose. And lost it he did.
UPDATE: A reader says that
Huard was hurt. Still, it could be the end of the road for Damon as
the starter, especially since Croyle threw a touchdown pass on the final
play of the game.
POSTED 3:24 p.m. EDT,
October 7, 2007
LEINART OUT WITH INJURY
Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart left
Sunday's game against the St. Louis Rams with a collar bone injury.
It's the third straight game in which Leinart
left prematurely, but the first time that his exit occurred for a reason
other than the guy behind him is better.
Before suffering the injury, however, Leinart
was replaced by Kurt Warner with the Cards trailing, 10-3. After
Warner led the team to a game-tying score, Leinart re-entered. And on
his second play back he got hurt.
Leinart had completed seven of 13 passes for
100 yards and an interception before the injury. As of this posting,
Warner is 10-of-18 for 150 yards and an interception. He also has a
touchdown run.
POSTED 1:45 p.m. EDT,
October 7, 2007
GREEN KNOCKED OUT, AGAIN
In Week One of the 2006 season, quarterback
Trent Green was knocked out while sliding at the end of the run. He
missed several weeks of the season while he recovered.
On Sunday, Green took a knee from Texans
defensive tackle Travis Johnson to the ear hole while trying to throw a low
block for receiver Ted Ginn, who had recovered a Green fumble and was
attempting to advance it.
Green was knocked out, and taken from the
field on a stretcher.
It's a sad development for Green, and it could
be the end of his NFL career. He was replaced by Cleo Lemon.
Jay Glazer of FOX reported on Sunday's pregame
show that the New Orleans Saints have dug up the coffin that the team
symbolically buried in June. The casket signified the team's success
in 2006. The idea was that the Saints were going to forget about the
accomplishments from a season ago, in the hopes of avoiding complacence.
It hasn't worked.
The Saints are 0-3 through four weeks, one of
only three winless teams.
So, as Glazer reported, Fujita dug up the box
and propped it up in the locker room with a sign that says, "We're back!"
Hopefully, Fujita dug up the right coffin.
(Says a reader, "Hopefully, it wasn't Fredo the parakeet.)
Then again, maybe he did. The Saints
already trail the Panthers, 3-0.
POSTED 12:42 p.m. EDT; LAST
UPDATED 1:00 p.m. EDT, October 7, 2007
HENRY TO TAKE LIE-DETECTOR TEST
Chris Mortensen of ESPN reports that Broncos
running back Travis Henry will submit to a lie-detector test in an effort to
prove that he did not smoke marijuana.
But the outcome of the test won't matter.
If his urine sample generates a positive for marijuana, he is presumed to be
in violation of the substance-abuse policy.
It's a direct result of the Collective
Bargaining Agreement between the NFL and the players' union. Given
Henry's status in the program, a positive result gets a one-year suspension.
There's no exception for passing a lie-detector test.
Mort also reports that Henry is willing to
provide a hair sample for analysis. But, again, there's no provision
in the rules for such alternative forms of drug testing.
And to the extent that such outside-the-box
offers make the NFL uncomfortable, the league has only itself to blame for
allowing Broncos coach Mike Shanahan to use polygraph testing to determine
whether, for example, receiver David Kircus was acting in self-defense when
he pounded the poo out of some guy who was hosting a party. When
Shanahan admitted that the team uses lie-detector testing, the league
remained silent.
But Shanahan's method, which by all
appearances violates federal law, creates an atmosphere in which a guy like
Henry can submit to a lie-detector test and win the P.R. battle against the
league. And that's why the league office needs to be ready to publicly
slap individual teams that run afoul of the law and/or common sense.
EMMITT MAKES A BOGUS
ARGUMENT
Though most of Emmitt Smith's
errors in his employment with ESPN have been the result of his inability to
talk and his apparent refusal to prepare, Emmitt's brain got him in hot
water on Sunday.
In a debate regarding the
current quarterback rotation in Arizona, Emmitt compared the circumstances
to the Steelers in 1995, with Neil O'Donnell and Kordell Stewart.
Keyshawn Johnson loudly
objected to Smith's reasoning. And rightfully so. The current
Matt Leinart/Kurt Warner conundrum is nothing like Bill Cowher's use of
Stewart in a limited role when O'Donnell was the starter.
Kordell played quarterback
only for a play at a time, as part of the pre-determined game plan. It
was known to O'Donnell that Kordell would enter the game, and the goal was
to take advantage of his unique skills on a one-shot basis only.
In Arizona, the Leinart and
Warner this is nothing like the Steelers' approach in 1995. And anyone
who has paid any attention to the NFL for the past decade or so should know
it.
WELCOME, PFT PLANET
Apparently, the word is out
that we've got the best and most comprehensive real-time Sunday coverage of
the news leading up to the NFL.
Though we typically have our
lowest traffic of the week on Saturdays and Sundays (when most of the folks
out there aren't surfing while working), we're already close to 100,000 page
views for today, even before the early games start.
So thanks for checking us out
when on your non-work time, and check back all day for updates.
POSTED 12:16 p.m. EDT,
October 7, 2007
POLAMALU AND HAMPTON ARE OUT
The Steelers will have to try to beat the
Seahawks without defensive tackle Casey Hampton or safety Troy Polamalu.
Both are inactive for Sunday's game.
Receiver Hines Ward also will miss the rematch
of Super Bowl XL.
POSTED 11:58 a.m. EDT,
October 7, 2007
SANTANA TO SIT
Jason La Canfora of the Washington Post
reports that Redskins receiver
Santana Moss won't play, due to a groin injury.
Moss was officially listed as doubtful, but
sounded optimistic on Friday that he might be able to go.
Receivers Keenan McCardell and Reche Caldwell
are active for the 'Skins.
POSTED 11:52 a.m. EDT,
October 7, 2007
BUSH TO BECOME BRIAN?
Chris Mortensen of ESPN reports that the
Saints spent the bye week preparing Reggie Bush to become an every-down
back, in the mold of Brian Westbrook of the Eagles.
This means, obviously, that Bush will now get
the bulk of the tailback touches.
Until he wears out or gets broken into 25
pieces.
Bush hasn't been a workhorse at the college or
pro levels. Last year, Deuce McAllister was the between-the-tackles
option. At USC, Bush yielded the nose-busting work to LenDale White.
Pats running back Laurence Maroney has been
listed as inactive for Sunday's game against the Browns, according to
NFL.com.
Sammy Morris will get the start in his place,
per Michael Fabiano of NFL.com.
Maroney was a surprise scratch from Monday
night's game against the Bengals. Both weeks, he was listed as
questionable with a groin injury. Maroney was a limited participant in
practice on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
Receiver Donte' Stallworth is active despite
also being listed as questionable.
POSTED 11:39 a.m. EDT,
October 7, 2007
SANTANA TO GO FOR 'SKINS?
Though listed as doubtful with a groin injury,
there's a chance that receiver Santana Moss will play on Sunday against the
Lions.
After missing practice all week, Moss ran
routes at close to full speed on Friday, and was encouraged by his progress.
Ed Werder of ESPN reports that Steelers
defensive tackle Casey Hampton and safety Troy Polamalu are game-time
decisions with injuries suffered last week, and that at this point it looks
like they won't play.
Stay tuned.
MAYBE BIG BEN HAD BRAIN
DAMAGE, AFTER ALL
It's widely presumed that
Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger recovered from his
Chrysler-to-the-face incident from June 2006 without any lingering ill
effects.
We thought so as well, until
we saw him walking through the bowels of Heinz Field on ESPN wearing a
fancy-looking sport coat over a T-shirt bearing the inscription "Outlaw."
POSTED
11:25 a.m. EDT, October 7, 2007
BUCS STILL LOOKING FOR ANOTHER BACK
Chris Mortensen of ESPN reports that the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers continue to search for new running backs via trade, in the
wake of the loss of Cadillac Williams for the season.
Mort says that the Bucs offered a sixth-round
pick to the Vikings for Mewelde Moore, and that trade talks continue.
Other possibilities include Ricky Williams, who might not be reinstated
before the October 16 trade deadline, and Chiefs tailback Priest Holmes, who
is eligible to return from the PUP list a day before the trade deadline.
For now, the Bucs will go with Michael Pittman
and Earnest Graham as the primary options.
POSTED 10:14 a.m. EDT; LAST
UPDATED 11:16 a.m. EDT, October 7, 2007
To create a place on the roster for Harrison,
the Pats released tight end Marcellus Rivers.
Harrison was suspended four game for admitting
to the purchase of HGH. He claimed that he did not use the compound to
gave an advantage but to speed the healing process. But that is, in
our view, no different than using it to cheat.
PFP GUYS BLAME OTHER
TURNER FOR BEARS' WOES
It really has been a bad month
for the Turner brothers, Norv and Ron. One is the embattled head coach
of the Chargers, and the other is the soon-to-be-embattled offensive
coordinator of the Bears.
The guys from FSN's Pro
Football Preview called out Ron Turner in this weekend's show, blaming
him for the problems with the Chicago offense.
As Jason Sehorn argued, Turner
should be doing what he can to get the ball in Devin Hester's hands.
And while Eddie George noted that the team has no running game, Sehorn
pointed out that the 4-0 Packers don't have one, either.
With Rex Grossman finally
benched, look for more and more critics to hone in on other reasons for the
defending NFC champions' collapse.
MORE ISSUES WITH NIKE
COMMERCIAL
In response to our item
regarding the digital revision to the jersey of one of the umpteen Steelers
player trying to keep running back Steven Jackson out of the end zone in the
Nike "Leave Nothing" commercial, a couple of readers have pointed out to us
a few other things about the stirring commercial.
As one reader said about the
first half of the spot, "I wonder when Nike will really fix that spot . . .
by taking Shawn Merriman out of it. It's interesting that they didn't
feel Mike Vick was representing them well as a face of their company, but a
proven steroid user was. Exactly what message are they trying to send
by using Merriman in their campaign? Is [Mike Vick] any worse a
spokesman for an athletic company than a proven steroid user?"
Another reader pointed out
that fact that the Nike commercial contains several images of the Reebok
logo. Such as this one near the beginning of the segment.
Of course, Nike has no choice
in this regard, if it wants to use images of players in official NFL gear.
Though Nike is one of the companies that supply footwear to the NFL, Reebok
is the exclusive apparel provider.
MORE BRUTALITY FROM EMMITT
Though we don't follow college
football very closely, we follow it enough to know that Lou Holtz is
unwatchable (and, more importantly, unlistenable) as an ESPN commentator.
We raise Lou's aptitude (or
lack thereof) in this space because we're trying to figure out whether he or
Emmitt Smith, for ESPN's NFL coverage, is the worst national commentator on
television.
Emmitt is back on our radar
screen already this week for his effort to provide some insight about the
Patriots' trio of running backs, only one of whom Smith could name without
stuttering and stammering. He's like a nervous freshman reading the
daily announcements in a 1,000-student high school. Blindfolded.
POSTED 10:53 p.m. EDT,
October 6, 2007; LAST UPDATED 12:55 a.m. EDT, October 7, 2007
JENNINGS COULD BE BACK THIS WEEK
A league source tells us that the San
Francisco 49ers could see the return of tackle Jonas Jennings as soon as
this week following a leave of absence for personal reasons.
Per the source, the team gave Jennings a week
off as a result of multiple personal issues that came together all at once.
One of the issues, as we understand it, is an
illness to a member of his immediate family. We don't have specific
information as to any of the other problems he's experiencing, but we're
told that there's no issue with Jennings himself.
The 49ers are on a bye for Week Six, and
return to action on October 21 when they travel to the Meadowlands to face
the Giants.
BRONCOS' REMEDIES LIMITED
BY CBA
Len Pasquarelli of ESPN.com
reports that the
Denver Broncos
inserted language into the contract of running back Travis Henry
requiring him to repay his entire $6 million signing bonus, or whatever
portion of it that he actually has received, if he is suspended for drugs.
The problem with Len's report,
however, is that the Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiated by the
league and the NFLPA in 2006 specifically prevents teams from having
individually negotiated forfeiture provisions for violations of the
substance abuse policy and/or the policy on anabolic steroids and related
substances.
As we recently explained, a
player who is suspended under the substance abuse policy automatically
forfeits the corresponding portion of his signing bonus that applies to the
games that he misses while on suspension. The player then has the
opportunity to earn the forfeited portion of the signing bonus back if/when
he performs on the back end of the deal the portion of the contract that was
tolled during his suspension.
So of the $6 million signing
bonus Henry received on a five-year deal, a one-year suspension will require
him to re-pay $1.2 million. But unless and until his application for
reinstatement is denied, Henry will owe no further money.
In other words, the Broncos
still must pay Henry $4.8 million. Since he already has received $2
million of the signing bonus money, the team owes him at the appropriate
upcoming dates $2.8 million of the deferred $4 million in signing bonus
money.
If Len's report is accurate,
the situation does not reflect well on the Broncos' front office. In
this era of limitations on the ability of teams to recover money that has
been already earned by players, the onus is on the organizations to use
devices such as per-game roster bonuses or advances on guaranteed salaries
to ensure that there is protection against players who default on their
deals.
And it's not as if the Broncos
shouldn't have been leery about Henry. He had been on the brink of a
one-year suspension since October 2005.
In the team's defense, it's
possible that a $6 million signing bonus was necessary to trump a pending
offer from another team. But there's never been any reports of such
other offers, and we're thus inclined under the circumstances to conclude
that this is just the latest example of coach Mike Shanahan using his
lifetime job security to squander some more of owner Pat Bowlen's money.
Finally, we've also got to
take issue with Pasquarelli's analysis of the $6 million option bonus owed
to Henry in the spring of 2009. Len says that the option is guaranteed
only as to injury. But since most option bonuses also have a
non-exercise fee in an amount identical to the option bonus, the Broncos
will have to decide whether to pay the money and keep Henry come March 2009
-- or whether to cut him and owe nothing.
If that's the case, cutting
him would likely prevent the team from recovering any of the signing bonus
applicable to the final three years of the deal. In other words, the
Broncos will have to pay Henry another $6 million in order to be able to get
another $3.6 million in signing bonus money back from him, if he remains in
default.
(Another issue that arises
under this specific deal is whether the tolling of the contract during
Henry's suspension also bumps back the due date for the option bonus.
If it does, Henry will have to be reinstated and play for a season or so
until the Broncos will be forced to decide whether to pay the option bonus
or to cut ties with Travis.)
Bottom line? Though
Len's report doesn't say it, the Broncos royally screwed up Henry's
contract. And Len royally screwed up his assessment of the situation.
ANOTHER LEN MISTAKE
While we're picking on Len
Pasquarelli, we need to mention a pretty basic mistake in his
weekly, pay-only Tip Sheet notes regarding the resurgent Tampa Bay
Buccaneers.
In reference to coach Jon
Gruden and G.M. Bruce Allen, Len says, "The two brought the franchise a
Super Bowl XXXVII title in 2002."
Len, your buddy Rich McKay
might take issue with that statement, since it was McKay and not Allen who
was the General Manager of the Bucs in 2002. Allen got the job in
2004.
But, hey, it's not all Len's
fault. As yours truly has learned in a month or so of writing
twice-weekly columns for SportingNews.com, there are editors and
fact-checkers employed by these "real" web sites that are paid to catch
writer mistakes.
Or, in the case of the editors
and fact-checkers assigned to Len's projects, to not catch them.
NIKE CHANGES JACKSON
COMMERCIAL
A couple of readers have
pointed out to us that Nike has digitally revised the Steven Jackson portion
of its "Leave Nothing" commercial to correct a fairly glaring error
regarding the number worn by one of the 17 or so players trying to keep the
Rams tailback out of the end zone.
Previously, one of the
Steelers players in the commercial wore the number 4. But since only a
quarterback, punter, or a kicker can wear number 4, Nike has since changed
the number to 48.
Here's the old one:
We've seen the new one, with
the guy in the "4" changed to "48."
Despite the fact that the
prior version was technically incorrect, it really wasn't a big deal.
We're actually surprised that Nike went to the trouble of fixing the thing.
With that said, Nike has yet
to go to the trouble of posting the new version of the commercial
on
its official web site. As of this posting, the old version
displays after the page loads.
CATCHING UP WITH THE
KORDOZA LINE
Through the first fourth of
the 2007 season, let's take a quick look at the NFL quarterbacks who
currently are below the career passer rating of Kordell Stewart, which we've
dubbed to be the line of demarcation between average and bad quarterbacks.
Here are the guys who made the
list: Jason Campbell, 69.6; J.P. Losman, 69.0; Brian Griese, 68.3;
Alex Smith, 66.6; Marc Bulger, 64.9; Gus Frerotte, 63.9; Matt Leinart, 63.8;
David Carr, 60.5; Kellen Clemens, 60.2; Drew Brees, 57.1; J.T. O'Sullivan,
52.1; Rex Grossman, 45.2; Tarvaris Jackson, 40.0; Trent Dilfer, 23.3.
Word on the NFL street is that Lions offensive
coordinator Mike Martz is already trying to gauge the head-coaching gigs
that will be open after the 2007 season -- and to position himself to get
one of them.
After an ugly demise to his tenure with the
Rams, which left him with a reputation of being erratic and power-mad, Martz
opted to get back to what he did best with the Greatest Show-Offs on Turf.
Following a so-so season in Detroit, things
are starting to click for Martz. And that will put him in position to
be on the short list of replacement candidates once the pink slips start to
fly in January.
Possible openings for 2008 will be in Miami,
Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Jacksonville, San Diego, New York (the
Giants, not the Jets), Philadelphia, Washington, Minnesota, Atlanta,
Carolina, Tampa, and Seattle.
PFTV PREVIEWS BUCS-COLTS
The title says it all.
Watch below. It only takes two minutes.
Not bad, huh? Better, at a minimum, than
playing another game of computer solitaire.
POSTED 4:47 p.m. EDT,
October 6, 2007
WANNSTEDT ON THE OUTS?
Former Bears and Dolphins coach Dave Wannstedt,
who rose to prominence as the defensive coordinator for Jimmy Johnson's
Cowboys in the early 1990s, could soon be looking for work again in the NFL.
There's talk in league circles that
Wannstedt's tenure with the Pitt Panthers will be ending if he doesn't make
it to a bowl game in 2007.
Wannstedt is in his third season with the
Panthers, his college alma mater. Though the program has recruited
well, Pitt has yet to become consistently competitive in a Big East
conference that realized a power vacuum after the departure of Miami,
Virginia Tech, and Boston College. With the rise of South Florida,
Cincinnati, and Rutgers, Pitt is in danger of slipping to the bottom of the
conference.
Wannstedt initially resisted taking the job,
but eventually relented after the pile of money offered by Pitt increased to
roughly $2 million per year. The buzz in league circles at the time
was that Wannstedt was hoping to position himself to slide into Bill
Cowher's job as coach of the Steelers whenever the Chin packed it in.
As it turned out, Cowher left after the 2006 season, but Wannstedt didn't
get a sniff for the gig.
He now might want to be re-kindling some of
those old NFL relationships in the event that he's looking for a job after
the 2007 season ends.
By the way, this is the kind of story that
soon will be showing up on the newly-reconstituted CollegeFootballTalk.com.
Eventually, the CFT domain name will connect to it. For now,
click here to check out the new
digs for our sister site.
POSTED 9:50 a.m. EDT; LAST
UPDATED 11:19 a.m. EDT, October 6, 2007
SMITH NOT TO BLAME FOR MARTY'S TERMINATION?
On Friday, some Internet hack wrote for
SportingNews.com that Chargers coach
Norv
Turner shouldn't be blamed for the team's 1-3 start, because Turner is
merely being what he always has been: a great offensive coordinator
and a not great head coach.
And while said Internet hack and others have
placed the ultimate blame for the team's performance on those who hired
Turner, Jim Trotter of SI.com (who until recently worked the Chargers beat
for the San Diego Union Tribune) writes that the opening that
resulted in the hiring of Turner was prompted not by G.M. A.J. Smith and his
long-term feud with former coach Marty Schottenheimer, but by Schottenheimer
for defying team president Dean Spanos.
Before reading this item any farther, we
suggest that you take a look at Trotter's two-page piece and then come back
for our take on it.
Go ahead. We'll wait for you.
<Whistle. Twiddle thumbs. Tap
fingers on table with increasing frequency and volume.>
Okay, you back? Here we go.
We think that Trotter's article isn't news,
but analysis of old news packaged as a fresh story. And we wonder
whether Trotter is slanting this thing to make Smith look good.
Possibly in order to help Smith avoid getting fired. Possibly to
maintain Trotter's pipeline to the G.M. of the organization. Or
possibly to be able to transfer that pipeline to wherever Smith lands if he
does get fired.
It was widely reported in February that
Schottenheimer's desire to hire his brother to replace Phillips was the last
straw; the only thing that perhaps wasn't known was the identity of the
specific camel whose back was broken by Marty's decision to exercise his
contractual right to shape his own staff. (And to hire his assistant
coaches.)
As to the fact that Marty had the absolute
right under his contract to give a job to his brother, Trotter glosses over
this plain reality and focuses instead on suppositions such as "the veteran
coach also knew that an owner's wishes trumps a contract's language," and
"he had to know he was drawing a line that Spanos would not allow him to
cross."
Look, Spanos gave Schottenheimer the legal
ability to hire whom he wanted to hire. As Trotter points out,
Schottenheimer initially suggested outside linebackers coach John Pagano,
but Spanos wanted someone who had experience calling defensive plays.
Instead of insisting that he be permitted to use his contractual right to
promote Pagano, Schottenheimer moved to his brother, Kurt, who had five
years' experience calling plays.
So maybe instead of trying to stick his thumb
in ownership's eye, perhaps Marty was trying to put together a staff that
wouldn't lead the team to a 1-3 record after four games in 2007.
Trotter also fails to acknowledge the
significance of one of the key historical facts, which he points out near
the beginning of the article but then apparently forgets. When Marty
arrived in 2002, he wanted to hire his brother, Kurt, and Marty's son,
Brian. When Dean Spanos resisted (since the son of the owner of the
team apparently doesn't believe in, um, nepotism), then-G.M. John Butler
intervened and persuaded Spanos to let Marty hire one of his relatives.
With Brian now gone (using merit instead of family connections to get an
even better gig with the Jets), there was no Schottenheimer kin on the
staff.
So where was Butler's successor to point this
out to Spanos? And where was Smith to raise with Spanos the risk that
it might be too late in the offseason to find a head coach who will do as
good of a job in 2007 as Schottenheimer did in 2006?
Smith presumably kept his mouth shut, because
Smith knew that doing so would result in the outcome he long had coveted --
the exit of Marty. And why would Smith raise the time-honored "devil
that you know" argument with Spanos when, in Smith's mind, the success of
the team wasn't the result of coaching but a product of the talent (natural
and pharmaceutically enhanced) that Smith had acquired?
Trotter also doesn't focus much on the events
that preceded the incident that prompted Marty's termination.
Schottenheimer's decision to draw a line in the sand was the final scene of
a three-act comedy/tragedy with Schottenheimer and Smith as either the
protagonist or antagonist, depending on perspective.
Smith created an atmosphere that
Schottenheimer deemed to be poisonous. Schottenheimer was too
nonchalant in Smith's view regarding the exodus of assistant coaches after
the 2006 campaign.
The simple reality is that, if A.J. and Marty
didn't thoroughly despise each other, Smith would have at least tried to
smooth things over with Spanos. Instead, the G.M. kept his mouth shut,
because he knew that doing so would get him what he had wanted all along.
So we'd blame Spanos for this one only because
he allowed these two men to coexist for as long as they did, and because
Spanos didn't realize that he was getting played, possibly by both of them,
when he made (or, at a minimum, approved) the decision to fire
Schottenheimer after all of the other viable candidates to replace him had
been hired elsewhere.
PFT PLANET COMES THROUGH ON
REID STORY
Last night, we posted an item
regarding a report from Adam Schefter of NFL Network on the status of Eagles
coach Andy Reid. Schefter said on a recent Total Access (which
I watched via my new Palm Trēo 755p available only for the Sprint
Nextel network) that Reid won't be stepping away from the job to tend to his
troubled sons because, as to both of these twentysomething young men, "the
die is cast."
So while it might be too late
for some hands-on parenting of the older boys, at least two of the other
three kids are still young enough for dad's presence and involvement to make
a difference.
We're not saying that Reid
isn't sufficiently present or involved. But anyone who thinks that
Reid won't consider giving up one of his two titles with the Eagles in order
to have more time to spend with his family simply because the two children
who have gotten in trouble might be too old to fix isn't considering the
fact that Reid might decide that he wants to try harder with the other three
in order to prevent a similar outcome.
Even as to the older Reid
children, it's not too late for the dad to make a difference. As one
reader put it in a Saturday morning e-mail, "Our fathering roles and
responsibilities certainly change, but they never cease. This kind of
thinking is exactly why our children are growing up without direction from
their parents -- fathers in particular."
Our take? Adam might
have been merely parroting the party line that the Eagles' brass is
privately propagating in an effort to throw water on the rampant rumors that
Reid will call it quits. If that's the case, we were just as guilty of
repeating the mantra without considering the broader picture.
Thankfully, we had PFT Planet
to set us straight.
WE AIN'T CHANGING
Plenty of our readers are
pleased to see the stamp of legitimacy that the presence of NFL.com ads
brings to the site.
But a few of you have raised
concerns that our partnership of sorts with the league will change the way
we do things.
Fear not, PFT Planet. We
will continue to express our opinions, regardless of whether those opinions
contain criticism of the league, any of its 32 teams, any of its 32 coaches,
any of its 32 General Managers, and/or any of its 32 owners.
Our only bias in this regard
is that we have always formed and shared these opinions because we want
what's best for the only professional sport about which we give a damn.
It was that way on November 1, 2001 when the site was launched, it's that
way today, and it'll be that way until the moment I drop dead at the
keyboard.
For those of you who have
requested full disclosure of the duration of the deal, our NFL.com
arrangement is a short-term thing only, through October 21, as part of the
NFL.com ongoing re-launch. Over the next 15 days, we hope that all of
you will let the NFL know that it's important to foster and support
independent voices like ours by hitting those NFL.com ads and checking out
the NFL.com site.
It really is a great site.
If we didn't think so, we'd say so.
And if there ever are any
incorrect or goofy statements in any of the content, we'll say so. If
you don't believe us, just ask Pat Kirwan.
FLORĒO GETS A TRĒO
Several weeks back, I declared
in this space my intention to purchase the MotoQ. I must now confess
that I never bought it.
Before I could close the deal,
I got my hands on a Palm Trēo 755p.
So I bought that one instead.
It . . . is . . . incredible.
As I type this, the device is propped up against the bottom of my monitor,
and it's displaying a live stream of NFL Network. (There's plenty of
other SprintTV content available, too.)
The features include full and
easy e-mail access (which is a must when 500-plus e-mails are popping up
each day), web browsing, Word and Excel document capabilities, and a phone
with a clear and easy to use speaker system.
It's also incredibly fast,
thanks to the Sprint network, which brings the heat even here in a
semi-rural area of West Virginia.
Though a little thicker than
other so-called smartphones, the Trēo is narrower and it feels compact and
solid. It is, without question, the best wireless device I've ever
encountered.
And, yeah, we say good stuff
every week about Sprint and/or products available through Sprint because
Sprint Nextel is the official telecommunications partner of ProFootballTalk.
But we couldn't do it if we didn't mean it. Devices like the Trēo on a
fast, consistent network like Sprint's make it very easy.
