The Indianapolis Colts have denied a report
from Ed Werder of ESPN that receiver Marvin Harrison will deal with knee
pain for the rest of his playing career.
So why do the Colts even care? If
there's information that makes an opponent uncertain about a guy's health,
so be it. Making a big deal about it only makes people suspicious that
maybe the situation is even worse than advertised.
POSTED 8:52
p.m. EDT, November 2, 2007
REID'S HOME WAS SEARCHED
Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce
Castor said on Friday that
the home of Eagles coach Andy Reid was searched in an effort to
corroborate statements from a cellmate of Garrett Reid. The cellmate
finked on Garrett Reid in connection with the smuggling of medications into
jail via Reid's internal pill box.
Garrett Reid faces new charges arising from
the smuggling incident, a day after he was sentenced to a jail term of two
to 23 months for drug and traffic offenses.
Castor said that most of the 89 pills that
Garrett Reid carried into jail matched prescriptions found in the Reid home.
Authorities also found in Garrett's room an unlabeled bottle containing Vicodin pills, two syringes, and eight needles.
A press release and photos is available
right here.
POSTED 8:35 p.m. EDT,
November 2, 2007
DILLON GETTING READY TO RETURN?
Adam Schefter of NFL Network reports that
veteran running back Corey Dillon, who has previously rebuffed inquiries
regarding his availability, is receptive to the idea of returning to the
Patriots or signing with another playoff contender, such as the Packers.
Dillion, who last played for the Patriots in
2006, is training in preparation for a comeback.
He won a Super Bowl in 2004 with the Patriots,
and he would be a great addition to a team without many/any guys who have
championship rings on their fingers.
In this regard, we're getting very intrigued
by what the Packers might be able to do in the postseason, especially if
they could get Dillon to shore up the position. At a time when
everyone with a pulse believes that Sunday's game between the Pats and the
Colts is a preview of an AFC title game between the same two teams and that
the winner of the rematch will seize the Lombardi Trophy without breaking a
sweat, we like the idea of Brett Favre sliding a stone into his slingshot
and catching Goliath in the gonads.
If that could happen, Favre would be able to
ride off into the sunset with his own John Elway moment. And we
predict that Favre wouldn't do it, and would instead keep coming back as
long as his body will allow him to do so.
POSTED 8:25 p.m. EDT,
November 2, 2007
ANOTHER "HENRY" IN HOT WATER
With Bengals receiver Chris Henry wrapping up
a multi-game suspension and Broncos running back Travis Henry facing one,
another NFL player with the same surname is on his wait out of the game for
a while.
Per Adam Schefter of NFL Network, Titans
rookie running back Chris Henry will be suspended four games for violating
the league's policy on anabolic steroids and related substances.
Schefter reports that Henry took a prescription medication that appears on
the listed of banned substances.
Henry didn't use steroids or HGH, but the
policy was violated and thus he gets a mandatory four-game suspension.
He'll lose four game checks and a proportionate amount of his rookie signing
bonus.
Reiss believes that the Pats will use the
roster spot for receiver Chad Jackson or cornerback Eddie Jackson, both of
whom are on the Physically Unable to Perform list.
There's been little or no mention of veteran
receiver Troy Brown, who also is on the PUP list and who very well might not
play at all in 2007.
Morris rushed for 117 yards on October 1
against the Bengals as the replacement for starter Laurence Maroney.
With Morris gone for the season, it'll be interesting to see whether the
team gives Corey Dillon a call.
POSTED 5:27 p.m. EDT,
November 2, 2007
RICE'S RECORDS SAFE?
While we were counting down the
top 25 players in
the NFL over the past 25 years, we wrote that Colts receiver Marvin
Harrison could end up breaking all of Jerry Rice's career receiving records.
Surgery, per Werder, is not regarded as a
viable option because there would be no guarantee of success and
rehabilitation time would require six months.
Harrison has been cleared to play on Sunday
against the Patriots, but coach Tony Dungy could hold him out in order to
preserve Harrison for the stretch run.
Harrison's absence would place greater
pressure on -- and would provide more opportunities for -- Reggie Wayne,
rookie Anthony Gonzalez, and tight end Dallas Clark in Sunday's showdown for
regular-season supremacy in the AFC.
As Titans cornerback Pacman Jones made the
trek to New York for a new audience with Commissioner Roger Goodell, Jones
did so as a former employee of TNA wrestling.
According to TNAWrestlingNews.com, which a
reader tells us is regarded as a reputable source of information for this
inherently disreputable form of entertainment,
Jones'
contract expired after the Bound for Glory event, and TNA opted
not to renew it.
That's a nice way of saying that TNA fired
Jones.
Per the report, TNA thought that Jones was
uncooperative regarding media efforts aimed at promoting the product.
He reportedly was paid up to $25,000 per appearance.
Jones initially planned to wrestle, but the
Titans obtained a restraining order based on language in his football
contract that requires him to avoid any activities that pose a risk of
physical harm. We heard at the time that the league was unhappy with
the appearance that Jones was making a mockery of his one-year suspension
from the NFL, and that Goodell is expected to be even less likely to
reinstate Jones to the league when Goodell reviews the situation after ten
games.
JACKSON GETS $582,000
As some Internet hack reported
earlier in the day on SportingNews.com, Jags defensive tackle Grady
Jackson received a one-year deal with a prorated $1.1 million base salary
when he signed with the team earlier in the week. As it turns out,
Jackson will likely be replacing Marcus Stroud for four games, once his
suspension for violation of the policy regarding steroids and related
substances kicks in.
Jackson's deal works out to
$582,000 and change for the rest of the season.
Under the CBA, Jackson also is
entitled to take the balance of his $1 million base salary with the Falcons
as termination pay, if Jackson has not previously utilized this device
during his career. There is no offset for future employment; he can
keep the full $1 million from the Falcons and the $582,000 from the Jags.
POSTED 1:01 p.m. EDT,
November 2, 2007
NEW CHARGES COMING FOR GARRETT REID
Published reports coming out of Philly
indicate that the eldest son of Eagles coach Andy Reid
will
face new charges arising from the discovery that Garrett Reid smuggled
89 pills into jail. Via his rectum.
The discovery was made not long before Garrett
Reid was sentenced to two to 23 months in jail as a result of drug and
traffic charges. A prosecutor said earlier this morning on WIP radio
that the judge's decision to keep the high end of the sentence below two
years keeps Garrett Reid in a more favorable incarceration arrangement.
With new charges, that could potentially change.
The Montgomery County District Attorney's
office is expected to discuss the charges on Friday afternoon.
The appeal hearing on the one-year suspension
of Broncos running back Travis Henry
has been bumped
to November 16, according to the Denver Post.
Per the Post, it might yet be pushed
back even farther.
Also pending is a legal action challenging the
NFL's drug-testing protocol. Henry alleged that the league should have
allowed a Henry-hired expert to monitor the analysis of Henry's "B" sample.
The league claims that Henry's ability to challenge the procedures in Court
is superseded by the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NFL and the
players' union.
Henry has contended that he did not violate
the substance-abuse policy, arguing that he was exposed to second-hand
marijuana smoke. He has offered to provide hair samples and to submit
to polygraph testing.
The significance of the postponement is that
Henry will continue to play until all pending matters are resolved.
And that's good for Henry, because we have a feeling that it's going to be
difficult for him to get reinstated once all appeals and legal challenges
are wrapped up and he's booted for a full year.
SPRINT LETS YOU PICK
MANNING'S . . . BRAIN
On the same day that we poke
fun at Colts quarterback Peyton Manning for poking a pointer into his
proboscis, we thought it would make sense to remind you that you can while
away some of the hours on a lazy Friday afternoon by squaring off with the
thing that resides at the top of Mr. Manning's nostril via a trivia game
created by Sprint.
The game is
Manning's Mind, and it really is
a lot of fun. Even Florio Jr., who to date is only marginally
interested in football (yet somehow has become a diehard Saints fan) got a
kick out of it.
Besides, it's free to play.
It's just another example of
Sprint's commitment to supporting our pastimes, such as the NFL and NASCAR.
Every company is going to have an advertising budget; Sprint chooses to
makes its presence known in the things that the folks who read this site
like to do. In a world where there are many carriers of wireless
services, supporting the company that supports the NFL is a no-brainer.
Besides, Sprint and Nextel are
the exclusive telecommunications partners of ProFootballTalk.
So click the Sprint links on
this page get yourself a Sprint product. Or two. Or five.
And then when you're done,
enter Manning's Mind. To get there, we suggest using your mouse, not
your finger.
POSTED 8:25 a.m. EDT; LAST
UPDATED 10:00 a.m. EDT, November 2, 2007
REID'S CRISIS CAN'T BE OVERSTATED
After having a chance to study in more detail
the
Thursday comments of Judge Steven T. O'Neill and the revelations made
regarding the broader scope of conduct of the oldest two sons of Eagles
coach Andy Reid, we're increasingly troubled by the situation -- and we
can't imagine Reid being able to continue as the coach of the team after the
2007 season.
The Judge lambasted Reid and his wife for
creating and enabling the environment that resulted in Garrett and Britt
Reid developing chemical dependency problems that resulted in both of them
committing crimes for which they will be incarcerated.
On one hand, it's easy to argue that Garrett
and Britt Reid, both of whom are in their 20s, are grown men. On the
other hand, modern parents tend to hover more and more over their children,
even after they become "adults." Especially when they still live with
mom and dad.
Regardless, these boys/men likely didn't wake
up one day as fully-formed adults and decided to start taking and/or selling
drugs. Indeed, it was disclosed on Thursday that Garrett Reid began
selling cocaine in North Philadelphia five years ago.
"'I
liked being the rich kid in that area and having my
own high-status life,' " Garrett was quoted as
saying. "'I could go anywhere in the 'hood.
They all knew who I was. I enjoyed it. I
liked being a drug dealer. . . . These kids
were scared of me,' " O'Neill quoted Garrett as
saying. "'I was even selling to their parents
. . . . I turned everyone on to Oxycontin.'"
The
judge chided Reid and his wife for having a "drug
emporium" in their house.
"I have some real difficulty
with the structure in which
these two boys live," Judge
O'Neill said. "What is
the supervision? . . .
You got to take
accountability of what goes
on in the house. This
is a family in crisis and we
have to address it."
Reid's family crisis has
quickly become a crisis for
the Eagles' organization,
and if the team doesn't
parlay last week's win
against the dreadfully bad
Minnesota Vikings into a
streak that culminates in a
playoff berth, the calls
from the media and the fans
to step aside will only
intensify.
And for good reason.
If Reid can't properly take
care of his own house, how
can he be expected to
properly take care of
someone else's?
REID'S KIDS USED STEROIDS,
TOO
Lost in Thursday's flurry of
kidney punches to the image
of Eagles coach Andy Reid
was a disclosure that
Garrett and Britt Reid used
steroids as young athletes.
Let's repeat that.
The sons of an NFL head
coach used steroids as youth
athletes.
Wow.
What would the NFL do if it
was revealed that a player's
kids were or had been using
steroids? Or if the
player was accused of
maintaining a "drug
emporium" at his house?
Cowboys assistant coach Wade
Wilson was suspended five
games for possessing HGH for
his own use because, as
Wilson was told, the league
holds coaches to a higher
standard.
It's a delicate situation,
to be sure. But we
suspect that the folks
running the show are at
least mildly troubled by the
information that has been
disclosed, and that this
could manifest itself in the
Eagles receiving
not-so-subtle indications
that the time might be
coming to accept Reid's
resignation -- even if he's
not ready to provide it.
MAKE YOUR PICKS . . . I
DARE YOU
I took a little bit of a
step back last week in the
PFT Pick Challenge, dropping
from 9-5 to 8-5. I'm
due to rebound in a big way
-- but I probably won't.
So now is your change to
thump me by picking more
games correctly than I do
for Week Nine.
The PFT Pick Challenge is
getting more and more play every week, and for good reason. It's easy,
it's fun, it's free, and you can win stuff.
Plus, we now have rankings
posted, so you can see how
well you're doing. (Or
otherwise.) It also
shows your total ranking in
comparison to yours truly.
The user whose name is drawn
from the names of all users who get more games right than me wins a free Fathead product, under our "Meathead or Fathead?"
contest.
The folks who get the most
games right for the week are entered into a separate drawing, and the winner
gets a free one-year subscription to Sporting News.
Under the "Refer A Friend"
program, the winner of the drawing made up of all folks who refer (again, not
reefer) someone else to the game gets the 2008 Rotoworld online draft guide.
And everyone who correctly
guesses the outcome of the Steelers-Bengals game is entered into a separate
drawing, and the winner gets a 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.
Finally, remember that every
game picked correctly is an entry into the end-of-season grand-prize drawing
for two tickets to the Football Game of Significant Significance, which will
be played this year in Arizona. The tickets have been available to us
at face value from our friends at NFL.com.
For this week, the winning
(eventually) picks are: Redskins, Falcons, Bucs, Chiefs, Bengals,
Chargers, Lions, Titans, Saints, Browns, Raiders, Pats, Cowboys, Steelers.
WE HELP EMMITT OUT
Our disdain for the
performances of ESPN's
Emmitt Smith has been well
documented. So why do
we do it?
First, it's funny to hear a
grown man who went to
college and who is working
for a high-profile sports
network say things like "you
will get blowed out."
Second, we point out
Emmitt's errors because they
are a sad commentary on what
we're willing to accept in
the name of seeing and
hearing a "big name."
There are kids out there
watching the various ESPN
shows on which Emmitt
appears, and they're going
to believe that it's okay to
butcher the English
language. We need to
do a better job than that,
and thus we need to demand a
higher standard from the
folks who are talking to
our kids.
If you went to meet with
your son's teacher, and she
told you, "Jimmy better
rightsize the ship," you'd
be a bit troubled.
Though a teacher's influence
on our children is (or at
least should be) far more
significant than a guy who
talks on television, the
reality is that all adults
who speak aloud for a living
to an audience that surely
includes kids should be
expected to demonstrate at
least a grade-school level
of competence when it comes
to the conjugation of verbs
and the manipulation of
vocabulary.
Especially when the adult is
the NFL's all-time leading
rusher.
And as we've previously
said, we don't blame Emmitt
as much as we blame whoever
it was in Bristol who opted
to put him on the air.
It's not as if Emmitt was
Frasier Crane in his
audition and then showed up
saying "blowed out."
And our guess is that many
of Emmitt's colleagues have
been mortified by the manner
in which he undermines the
credibility of the ESPN
brand, and that they've
likely begun to strike off
the days on the calendar
until the season ends and
Emmitt is quietly nudged
into another line of
post-football work.
10. Emmitt
Smith, ESPN NFL analyst:
The Bills and the Giants
could not stop him. Nor
could Mario Lopez on
Dancing With the Stars.
But Smith is facing an
opponent that might finally
do him in:
Pro Football Talk.com.
The plucky Web site offers a
live blog of ESPN's
Monday Night coverage
where they skewer every
Smith mistake (and there are
many) with bloodthirsty
delight. Not sure Emmitt is
going to outrun the sports
blogsphere here.
Hey, Emmitt -- you're
welcome?
FRIDAY MORNING ONE-PER-CLUB
ONE-LINERS
by Michael David Smith
Says Patriots coach Bill
Belichick of Colts TE Dallas
Clark, "He's faster than
most linebackers he plays,
he's bigger than most
defensive backs he plays,
plus he's a good receiver.
No matter who you have on
him,
they have trouble covering
him."
Bengals RB Kenny Watson
practiced Thursday and
will play this weekend
despite suffering a
concussion Sunday.
Says Titans C Kevin Mawae of
his younger teammates, "They
want you to go out with them
on Thursday night and I am
sitting there thinking, 'My
son has football practice,
my daughter has a dance
class, and
Frasier comes on at
9:30." [Editor's
note: In six
prior years, we'd never
mentioned Frasier Crane
once. And now we've
done it twice in one
morning.]
Some unnamed Chiefs players
had some fun at the
expense of K Dave Rayner.
Raiders QB Daunte Culpepper
isn't complaining about
being replaced by Josh
McCown.
Says Chargers LB Shawne
Merriman of Sunday's victory
over the Texans, "I was
ready to start a fight
at any point in that game."
[Editor's note:
It's a good thing that
irrational rage isn't a
symptom of steroid use, or
we'd wonder whether Merriman
is back on the juice.]
Broncos CB Champ Bailey says
of playing against his
brother, Lions LB Boss
Bailey, on Sunday, "It's sad
but I don't get to really
play against him. . . .
I don't get to
go out there and hit him in
the mouth a few times."
Cowboys S Roy Williams is
sick of hearing that
he's a liability in pass
coverage.
Lions coach Rod Marinelli
has created a "do-right
list" of things he
expects assistant coach Joe
Cullen to do as a result of
his arrests last year for
driving drunk while clothed
and nude while sober.
The Bears' 3-5 record makes
them less likely to
play in prime time once
the "flexible schedule" for
NBC kicks in.
When asked if he had time to
talk to a reporter Thursday,
Panthers WR Steve Smith
said, "That depends on the
subject." When told the
subject was teammate Dwayne
Jarrett, Smith said, "I
don't have a minute to talk
about that."
Tampa Bay's defensive
players are
showing respect for
Cardinals QB Kurt Warner.
The Saints' defense has gone
six straight games
without allowing a 100-yard
runner.
Goodell suspended Jones for the full 2007
season in April, but agreed to review the case after ten games. The
Commissioner will meet with Jones, apparently at his request, to receive an "update" from the player.
Jones has expressed optimism
that he'll be reinstated early. We suggest that he not hold his
breath, or any other bodily functions.
PFT INVADES NFLN, AGAIN
On Thursday afternoon, yours
truly got another opportunity to ugly up the airwaves on NFL Network.
Specifically, I did a brief segment with Adam Schefter on Point After,
via satellite from the studios of WDTV in Clarksburg/Bridgeport. (If
you're a PFTV aficionado, the setting might
look familiar.)
NFLN has forwarded to us a
link to the segment. Here it is.
It's just a brief example of
the kind of stuff that you get on NFL Network (when, of course, NFLN isn't
otherwise offering up actual football action and/or extended highlights
packages).
Also, keep in mind that NFLN
will be all over the coming Pats-Colts game. Coming up at 9:00 p.m.
EDT on Thursday, NFLN will air Who Is . . . Better: Brady or
Manning? (It re-airs on Friday at 3:00 a.m. EDT and Saturday at
11:30 a.m. EDT).
On Saturday and Sunday, NFLN
presents various replays of classic Pats-Colts contests of the recent past.
By the time Sunday at 4:15
p.m. EST rolls around, there will have been 36.5 hours of programming in
anticipation of the biggest regular-season game in NFL history.
And if you aren't getting NFLN
because your cable company refuses to carry it, click the link at the top of
this page (on the left) and make yourself heard.
A QUICK PROGRAMMING NOTE
With the biggest . . . game .
. . ever coming up this weekend, we're getting more radio requests than
usual. Later tonight, we'll visit for a few minutes with Eddie White
of WIBC in Indianapolis. Then, at some point between 2:00 a.m. and
6:00 a.m. EDT, the web site that rarely sleeps will make an appearance in
the City that Never Sleeps, as yours truly visits with the Gordon Damer Show
on ESPN 1050 in New York.
Next, I'll spend a few minutes
on Friday morning with Lance Zierlein and John Granato of KGOW in Houston.
Lance, by the way, is the son of Larry Zierlein, the Steelers assistant
coach who inadvertently forwarded a certain video via e-mail to a bunch of
NFL big shots. We broke the story back in June.
To his credit, Lance
apparently realizes that news is news and there's nothing personal about it.
Or, alternatively, it's an ambush. Either way, it should be fun.
SO DO THE PATS RUN UP THE
SCORE?
It's been the most debated NFL
question of the week. And so PFTV must chime in on it.
Here's what the guys had to
say.
POSTED 7:58 p.m. EDT,
November 1, 2007
JARVIS MOSS OUT FOR THE YEAR
The Denver Broncos have announced that rookie
defensive end Jarvis Moss, a first-round pick in the 2007 draft,
will miss the rest of the year after he fractured his fibula and tore
ankle ligaments in practice on Thursday.
The injury was described by coach Mike
Shanahan as "kind of a freak accident."
"He'll have surgery here in the next few days
and it will be about a three- or four-month recovery time," Shanahan said.
"It's very similar to the injury Cecil Sapp had, and he came back full
speed. It happened in a nine-on-seven drill today."
The Broncos also announced that receiver Rod
Smith will not be emerging from the Physically Unable to Perform list, which
means that he also will be lost for the year.
POSTED 5:39 p.m. EDT, November 1, 2007
MCCOWN TO START FOR RAIDERS
by Michael David Smith
McDonald reports that Raiders coach Lane
Kiffin made the announcement at practice today.
McCown started the Raiders' first two games, but he suffered a broken toe
against the Cleveland Browns. Daunte Culpepper took over in McCown's place
and played sufficiently well in his first start -- throwing for two
touchdowns and running for three -- that most people thought Culpepper had
earned the job for good, or at least until the Raiders decide it's time to
start rookie JaMarcus Russell.
But Culpepper has struggled recently, so
Kiffin turns back to McCown. Either way, the starter for the Raiders is
mostly just a place holder until Russell is ready.
Raiders fans who live in the Bay Area won't be able to watch McCown lead the
team against the Texans from the comfort of their homes. McDonald also
reports that the Raiders-Texans game hasn't sold out, meaning it will be a
local blackout, and fans in the Bay Area will get to see the Colts-Patriots
game.
The NFL has named its rookies of the month for
October. On the offensive side of the ball, it's the same guy who won
it in September -- Vikings running back Adrian Peterson. He clinched
the prize with a 224-yard rushing output against the Bears.
On defense, the award went to 49ers linebacker
Patrick Willis, who recorded 43 tackles in three games. He is the only
rookie in NFL history to notch at least 10 tackles in each of his first
seven games.
In September, the awards went to Peterson and
Texans defensive tackle Amobi Okoye. All three of the players to win
the award this year were taken in the top half of the first round of the
draft, between picks seven and thirteen.
ALLEN IS THE AFC DEFENSIVE
PLAYER OF THE MONTH
The Chiefs have announced that
defensive end Jared Allen has been named the AFC defensive player of the
month for October.
Allen, who was suspended for
the first two games of the regular season, made an instant impact when he
returned in Week Three. He has 7.5 sacks in five games, and he is the
first Chief to win the award since Derrick Thomas in 1997.
The high-motor sack specialist
is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent in March. Chiefs G.M.
Carl Peterson has vowed to use the franchise tag on Allen if necessary to
keep him.
POSTED 4:04 p.m. EDT, November 1, 2007
JUDGE CALLS ANDY REID'S
HOME "A DRUG EMPORIUM" by Michael David Smith
A judge in Philadelphia today sentenced
Garrett Reid to two to 23 months in jail and had harsh words for the home
where Reid lives with his father, Eagles coach Andy Reid.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that
Judge Steven O'Neill likened the Reid home to "a
drug emporium" and questioned whether it was a suitable place for Reid's
adult sons to live.
"There isn't any structure there that this court can depend upon . . . this is
a family in crisis," the Inquirer quotes O'Neill as saying.
Those words must have stung Reid, who was in
court at the time but declined to talk to reporters afterward. Although Reid
has said he plans to continue coaching the Eagles, there has been a great
deal of speculation that the legal problems of Garrett and another Reid son,
Britt, could lead to him stepping aside.
The details that emerged about Garrett Reid at
today's sentencing describe a man so desperate for drugs that he smuggled 89
pills into jail by secreting them in his rectum. Garrett Reid spoke in court
and said, "I don't want to be that kid who was the son of the head coach of
the Eagles who was spoiled and on drugs and OD'ed and just faded into
oblivion."
POSTED 2:55 p.m. EDT, November 1, 2007
VILMA'S KNEE WAS FLAGGED AT
2004 COMBINE by Michael David Smith
Jets linebacker Jonathan Vilma was placed on
injured reserve last week with a knee injury. It was never quite clear what
happened to Vilma's knee, as Jets coach Eric Mangini said that Vilma had to
leave the Jets' Week Seven game against the Bengals because of a knee
problem, while Vilma said he could have stayed in the game.
Today Rich Cimini of the New York Daily
News reports that Vilma's knee problems go back to high school, and that
NFL doctors
flagged Vilma's knee at the 2004 Indianapolis scouting combine. The knee
condition is known as osteochondritis dissecans, a bone defect that can
cause instability and loose particles in the joint. Terry Bradway, who at
the time was the Jets' general manager, said in 2004 that the team's medical
staff had cleared Vilma.
Neither Vilma nor the Jets will confirm
exactly what is wrong with his knee. Cimini quotes Dr. Nicholas DiNubile, an
orthopedic surgeon who consults with the Philadelphia 76ers, as saying that
Vilma could need micro-fracture surgery on the knee, although DiNuble has
not seen the results of Vilma's MRI.
Vilma has one more season remaining on the
contract he signed as the Jets' first-round pick in 2004. There has been
speculation that Vilma will ask for either a new contract or a trade in the
off-season.
POSTED 11:01 a.m. EDT; LAST
UPDATED 12:00 p.m. EDT, November 1, 2007
ROSENFELS GETS HIS SHOT
With starting quarterback Matt Schaub still
feeling the effects of a concussion that coach Gary Kubiak initially refused
to call a concussion, backup
Sage Rosenfels most likely will play on Sunday against the Raiders.
So while the rest of the free world will be
watching the Patriots and the Colts in Indy, Rosenfels will be taking the
snaps in a battle of the 2-5 Raiders and the 3-5 Texans. It will be
the third start of Rosenfels' career.
For Schaub, it was his first concussion.
But like Travis Henry and Tom Brady discussing their children, most football
players should add the phrase "that I know of" to any attempt to count up
the number of times that their brains have been banged around.
CHILDRESS TELLS GEORGE TO
CHILL OUT
On Monday, former NFL
quarterback Jeff George made it known that he'd like to play for the
Vikings. On Wednesday, coach Brad Childress responded.
"Probably maybe go to a fantasy camp or
something like that," Childress said.
Asked whether George is
on the
downside of his playing career, Childress said, "Downside
would probably be -- I think -- kind."
Ouch. We didn't know an
NFL coach could be so snarky.
George was taken aback by the
remarks.
"It
kind of catches me off guard," George said, according to Sean Jensen of
the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "I don't know how to comment on
that."
But then, of course, he did.
"With any team, not just Minnesota, that might
need a quarterback, I would hope someone would overlook what happened 10
years ago, or whoever they got their information from, and just give me an
opportunity. You don't have to sign me. But it won't hurt to bring me
in and take a look."
We agree. George is 38.
Vinny Testaverde is 43. George has far less wear and tear than most
other quarterbacks his age, because he really hasn't played all that much.
And he likely still has a rocket of an arm.
But even bringing George in
for a look-see would be a tacit admission by Childress that his current
quarterbacks suck. The fact that Childress is the only one who
apparently can't see this means that, in due time, it will be kind to say
that Childress is on the downside of his coaching career.
CHANGES COMING FOR PFT
We thought it would be fitting
on the first day of our seventh year of operation to point out that, in the
not-too-distant future, we'll be implementing some long-overdue updates and
changes to the site.
New features will include (we
hope) permalinks for all stories, an RSS feed, and comments sections so that
PFT Planet can sound off whenever and wherever it chooses to do so.
We couldn't install all of
these changes without revising the look of the site. Though we'll
continue to keep the mock up of the redesigned page under wraps for now,
we've decided to pull the curtain off of what will be our new logo.
Here it is. (Please make
a drum roll on your desk, or on the bald spot of the guy in the next
cubicle.)
Each week, we slap together
our Power Rankings. And we also take the time to try to come up with
some smart-alecky (and sometimes humorous) comments about the teams.
Today, though, we're running
low on time. Yours truly is scheduled to make an appearance on NFLN
(more on this later) and there's too much to do and not enough time to do it
all.
So we've limited the comments
in the Power Rankings to one word per team.
Check it out.
And if you don't like the one
word we've assigned to your team, a certain two-word phrase comes to mind.
POSTED 8:59 a.m. EDT; LAST
UPDATED 10:25 a.m. EDT, November 1, 2007
BUSH DEFENSE TO FOCUS ON CALIFORNIA AGENT
LAW?
Saints running back Reggie Bush and his family
plan to defend against the lawsuit filed by Lloyd Lake of New Era Sports &
Entertainment by citing a California law that prohibits the activities in
which Lake apparently was engaged, according to a source with knowledge of
the defense team's current plans.
Per the source, Bush's camp believes that the
claims made by Lake constitute evidence of multiple violations of the
Miller-Ayala Athlete
Agents Act.
The Act prohibits agents from, for example,
initiating contact with athletes or members of their immediate families.
Also, the Act requires agents to notify the athlete's university if the
player is the one who initiates contact with the agent. Most
importantly, the Act requires any agreements between agents and athletes to
be in writing.
So if Bush and family can show that Lake
violated the Act, the ultimate argument will be that Lake cannot recover any
of the money he allegedly paid to Bush or his family. At
Section 18897.93 of the California Business and Professions Code, the
Act states, "No person shall owe an athlete agent any money or other
consideration pursuant to an endorsement contract, financial services
contract, or professional sports services contract negotiated by the athlete
agent if the athlete agent fails to comply with this chapter."
And there's more. Lake's actions
potentially subject him to liability to Bush and to USC for any damages that
they have suffered (or will suffer) as a result of Lake's alleged violations
of the Act. If, as many believe, the Texans passed on Bush at the very
top of the 2006 draft because of concerns regarding the allegations that
Bush and/or his family were "on the take," then Bush can make a counterclaim
against Lake for the difference between the value of his contract as the No.
2 pick and the contract of the No. 1 pick. Bush also might be entitled
to compensation from Lake if/when Bush suffers the public humiliation of
having to give up the Heisman Trophy.
As to USC, Lake could be responsible for
damages resulting from any games forfeited after the fact -- or from a
National Championship that could be stripped from the school.
But we think there's a potential wrinkle here
that could make this case different than the standard situation in which an
established agent preys on an athlete and/or his immediate family. In
this case, there could be allegations that the entire operation began
because Bush's stepfather, Lamar Griffin, solicited Lake and Michael
Michaels to create with him an agency that would represent Reggie's
interests -- and then use the representation of Reggie as a springboard to
building a full-blown sports agency.
So if Lamar Griffin pitched this concept and
Lake and Michaels decided to do it and then Griffin asked for money and
other stuff as a quasi-advance on future earnings, who's really at fault
here?
And regardless of whether Bush will beat back
a claim for $291,000 that he can easily afford to pay, or whether Bush
and/or USC can sue Lake for hundreds of thousands of dollars that he might
not have, the broader issue (as far as the NCAA and the public are
concerned) is whether Bush and/or his family were getting paid while Reggie
was still playing football for USC.
For the IRS, the next question might be
whether anyone was paying taxes on the money that was changing hands.
So while the Miller-Ayala Athlete Agent Act
might be the silver bullet for defending against Lake's claims, the most
significant damage could be done long before the lawsuit is dismissed.
Especially since Lake is scheduled to be interviewed by the NCAA on Friday.
BROWNS WILL BE BACKED INTO
A CORNER ON ANDERSON
As the Cleveland Browns
prepare to try to strengthen their chances for an unexpected playoff
appearance, there's a looming dilemma at the quarterback position.
Many in the media presume that
the Browns will have to decide whether the starting quarterback in 2008 will
be Derek Anderson or Brady Quinn. But the ultimate choice will have
longer-term repercussions than that, in our view.
Anderson will be a restricted
free agent after the season. Regardless of whether the Browns decide
to go with Anderson or Quinn in 2008, the Browns undoubtedly will slap the
highest possible RFA tender on Anderson, ensuring that they will be entitled
to a first-round pick and a third-round pick as compensation, if he leaves.
(Even if they want to go with Quinn, they can trade Anderson for less than a
first-rounder and a third-rounder, like the Falcons did with Matt Schaub.)
But who wouldn't give up a
first-round pick and a third-round pick for a semi-proven commodity at the
quarterback position? Why spend the No. 1 overall pick (and $32
million or more in guaranteed money) on a potential Tim Couch or Ryan Leaf
when, for a first-round pick and a third-round pick, you can have a guy who
has actually worn an NFL helmet for reasons other than trick-or-treating?
(And performed well while doing so.)
Even if a potential suitor for
Anderson decides not to slip a "poison pill" in the offer sheet to Anderson
that would make it impossible for Cleveland to match the deal, the only way
that the Browns would be able to keep Anderson around for 2008 would be to
make the kind of financial investment that will make it impossible for them
to put him on the bench in 2009. Or 2010.
So who are the candidates to
make a run at Anderson? Obvious possibilities are the Jaguars, Chiefs,
Vikings, Bears, Bucs, and Panthers. (Even if the 49ers were inclined
to give up on Alex Smith after three seasons, they can't extend an offer for
Anderson because their first-round pick was traded to New England. And
having the Colts' first-rounder via the Tony Ugoh trade doesn't count -- the
49ers have to have their own pick.)
And what about the Dolphins?
There's talk that owner Wayne Huizenga might want to make a big splash at
quarterback, if early reviews on rookie John Beck aren't promising.
Making a run at Anderson would have two significant benefits. First,
G.M. Randy Mueller (or whoever has the job at the time) wouldn't have to
play pin the tail on the donkey with Matt Ryan and Brian Brohm and Andre
Woodson. Second, the Fins would foist onto the Browns the requirement
to take a shot in the dark on a blue-chip prospect at a time when the chips
won't likely be as blue as they were in 2007 -- and then pay the guy more
than $30 million guaranteed.
The Ravens need a long-term
answer at the position. But would they be willing to give up a
first-round pick and a third-round pick for the guy whom they cut -- and who
then developed into a star with their arch-rivals in Cleveland? Still,
if Anderson were to become a star in Baltimore and if Brady ends up being a
bust, it would be viewed as a brilliant move.
Bottom line? The way
things are shaping up right now, someone will give up a one and three
for Anderson. And the only way the Browns will be able to keep him is
if they're willing to have two high-priced quarterbacks -- and if they're
able to keep one of them happy while he is languishing on the bench.
NO COLLEGE STATION
DOUBLE-HEADER
Our own MDS has reported for
AOL's FanHouse that the rare simultaneous CBS doubleheader planned by KBTX
in College Station, Texas won't be happening.
On Wednesday, it was disclosed
that KBTX would air the Texans-Raiders game, and that KBTX had made
arrangements for the local cable company to broadcast the CBS feed of the
Pats-Colts game.
As we expected, NFL rules
prevent such arrangements.
An NFL spokesman told MDS, "This
won't be happening despite what is reported. The local affiliate
must be misinformed about its rights under the CBS television contract, but
this is not permissible."
Meanwhile, some readers have
complained that we spoiled the fun by blowing the whistle on the
arrangement. Um, guys? If the NFL is able to find out about
churches that plan on displaying the Super Bowl to its congregation, the
league probably would have caught wind of KBTX's plans -- especially after
KBTX announced them on its web site.
The link to the KBTX story, by
the way, is now
defunct. Imagine that.
THURSDAY MORNING
ONE-PER-CLUB ONE-LINERS
by Michael David Smith
Patriots coach Bill Belichick
says of the Colts, "I think the most impressive thing is just
how few mistakes they make."
Tickets to Sunday's game at
the RCA Dome are going for
an average of $372 on StubHub.
Three Bills who missed
Sunday's game against the Jets were
back at practice Wednesday.
Browns QB Derek Anderson is
getting hyped on NFL Network.
The Bengals' single-season
receiving records for catches, yards, and touchdowns are
all within reach of WR T.J. Houshmandzadeh.
New Jaguars DT Grady Jackson
introduced himself by saying, "I'm just a humble person,
a laid-back type of guy." [Editor's note: ". .
. except when I'm filing a lawsuit against my employer."]
DT Albert Haynesworth
doesn't particularly care who plays quarterback for the Panthers against
the Titans on Sunday.
Texans WR Andre Johnson
pronounced himself
85 percent recovered from a sprained knee.
Chargers coach Norv Turner
credits P Mike Scifres for putting the Texans in bad field position
Sunday.
The Chiefs have announced that
they'll
continue holding training camp at the University of Wisconsin at River
Falls for at least another year.
Broncos RB Selvin Young didn't
feel like he took a beating Monday night, despite getting 24 touches in his
first NFL start: "Actually,
my body feels good."
LB Kirk Morrison is frustrated
that the Raiders
can't close out
games in the fourth quarter.
Says ex-Cowboys coach Bill
Parcells of his old quarterback's new contract, "Now Tony has two things to
be careful with --
the football and his money. Both are equally hard to take care of,
and there's always someone out there trying to strip you of them."
Although he's coming home to
Cleveland on Sunday, Seahawks backup QB Charlie Frye says
no one has asked for tickets because they know he's not playing.
Bill Walsh will be
honored at the Super Bowl in a ceremony that will include several of his
players with the 49ers.
An industry source tells us in response to our
speculation item from earlier today that the Dolphins will stick with Cleo
Lemon at quarterback until the team gets a win that, in reality, owner Wayne
Huizenga wants the coaching staff to play quarterback John Beck.
Per the source, Huizenga wants to find out if
Beck has the potential to become a long-term starter, since the team will be
in position to select a blue-chip quarterback high in the first round of the
draft.
And that reality further highlights how
ridiculous the current financial system for paying first-round rookies has
become. Assuming that the Dolphins and the Rams finish with the two
worst records in the league, their reward will be paying guaranteed money of
$30 million or more to a guy who has never taken a snap in the NFL.
But even if the Fins are in line to draft a
blue-chip quarterback, we think that some patience needs to be exercised.
This franchise has been wasting draft picks for years (primarily by trading
them away) in an effort to find
the next Dan Marino. Whether or not Beck makes a big splash in limited
duty on a bad team in 2007 shouldn't prompt the powers-that-be to burn up a
top-two pick on another rookie quarterback.
POSTED 10:03 p.m. EDT; LAST
UPDATED 10:26 p.m. EDT, October 31, 2007
VRABEL WINS FIRST POW AWARD
Patriots linebacker Mike Vrabel, an 11-year
veteran who arguably is having his best season yet, won the first AFC
defensive player of the week award of his career for his role in the team's
dismantling of the Redskins.
Vrabel made 13 tackles, notched three sacks,
and forced three fumbles. He also caught a touchdown pass on offense,
which of course has nothing to do with defense.
Speaking of offense, Colts running back Joseph
Addai won the AFC offensive player of the week honors, the second of his
career. Chargers punter Mike Scifres was the AFC special teams player
of the week.
In the NFC, Saints quarterback Drew Brees was
named the offensive player of the week, thanks to 336 yards passing and four
touchdowns. Eagles defensive end Trent Cole is the NFC defensive
player of the week. And Lions kicker Jason Hanson, who has been with
the team for 16 seasons, won his tenth career POW award for special teams.
With all due respect, and recognizing that we
have a lengthy record of poking fun at Packers quarterback Brett Favre, how
in the heck does Favre not win the NFC offensive player of the week award?
Favre threw two rainbow shots that connected on Monday night, including an
82-yarder that won the game in Denver, a place where Green Bay had never
before prevailed.
PFTV LOOKS AT THE ROMO DEAL
In another PFTV segment for
the week, Florio and Brocato take a look at the Tony Romo deal, and its
potential implications.
Raiders rookie running back Michael Bush, a
potential top-ten pick who decided to spend another year in college only to
see his leg bend in a direction that it wasn't intended by God to bend, has
emerged from the non-football injury list and joined practice, an industry
source tells us.
Bush was a fourth-round pick of the Raiders,
and many thought he could be the steal of the draft. But Bush hadn't
fully healed from the broken leg that ended his college career prematurely,
and he spent all of training camp, all of the preseason, and the first eight
weeks of the regular season on the NFI list.
The Raiders will now have three weeks to
activate Bush or put him on injured reserve. If he is activated, it is
likely that the Raiders will consider cutting running back Dominic Rhodes.
The Steelers recently cut cornerback Ricardo
Colclough, a second-round pick in the 2004 draft.
The Browns made a waivers claim on Colclough,
and were awarded his rights.
The fact that the Browns secured Colclough
means that no one beneath them on the pecking order (determined primarily by
overall record) made a claim.
Adam Schefter of NFL Network reports that the
Panthers also made a claim for Colclough.
Having Colclough around comes in handy, since
the Browns play the Steelers on November 11. And, by the way, the
Browns are currently only a game behind their neighbors to the southeast.
To clear a spot for Colclough, the Browns
placed nose tackle Ted Washington on injured reserve.
The NFL has fined 49ers kicker Joe Nedney
$7,500 for giving a fan the middle finger on Sunday during the team's loss
to the Saints.
"I should've counted to 10 and taken a couple
deep breaths. A comment was made to me at the wrong time and I lashed
out, and now I've financially paid the consequences," Nedney said.
Hey, Joe? What the hell did you think?
That only the guy who was riding you would be looking in your direction
when you flipped him off -- and that none of the other folks in the stands
would notice?
There's a "Real Men of Genius" commercial
floating around in that logic somewhere.
Meanwhile, my kid now wants to go
trick-or-treating as Joe Nedney.
Then again, it could be worse -- Florio Jr.
could ask
to go as Mike Ditka with an itchy groin.
POSTED 3:29 p.m. EDT; LAST
UPDATED 3:43 p.m. EDT, October 31, 2007
CAT FIGHT COMING FOR PANTHERS RECEIVERS?
Pat Yasinskas of the Charlotte Observer
writes that there was a tense moment on Wednesday between Panthers receiver
Steve Smith and rookie wideout Dwayne Jarrett.
Then Smith, in a "very strong tone," said,
"Seriously."
But Jarrett kept on talking.
For the rookie's sake, we hope he keeps his
distance from Smith when he gets to the film room. Because it was five
years ago that Smith sucker punched a teammate while they were watching
film.
(Thanks to our own MDS for tipping us off to
this one.)
COLLEGE STATION SPECIAL
CONFIRMED
KBTX in Bryan/College Station,
Texas has announced that it will be pulling off a rare, if not
unprecedented, simultaneous CBS double-header.
While KBTX airs the
Texans-Raiders game at 4:15 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Suddenlink cable will
broadcast the CBS feed of the Pats-Colts game in the same market.
The one thing that KBTX
doesn't mention is whether the NFL or CBS have signed off on this deviation
from the usual procedures.
NO SUCH LUCK IN CLEVELAND
With the Browns playing a home
game against the Seahawks on Sunday, folks in Cleveland also won't get to
see the greatest . . . game . . . ever.
Though the Browns game will be
televised by FOX (since an NFC team is the visitor), the CBS affiliate is
barred from televising a game at the same time the local team is playing
a home game.
We're not sure why that is.
Maybe the reason is to ensure that folks at the stadium will actually be
paying attention to the game between the Seahawks and the Browns instead of
huddling around portable televisions to see what's up in Indy.
If the Browns were only
playing a non-West Coast team, the 4:05 p.m. EDT kickoff likely would have
been a 1:00 p.m. start time, allowing local fans to enjoy the Browns game
before the biggest game in NFL regular-season history.
POSTED 2:24 p.m. EDT,
October 31, 2007
NO BECK UNTIL FINS WIN?
Although Dolphins coach Cam Cameron reportedly
will take some time during the bye week to decide whether to stick with
Cleo Lemon as the starting quarterback or give rookie John Beck a shot, we
think that the decision to go with Beck hinges on one very significant
factor.
When -- and if -- the Fins get a win.
Currently, the Miami football franchise is
halfway to the wrong kind of pro sports immortality. And the Fins are
only six losses away from matching the futility of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
some 31 years ago.
At least the Bucs had an excuse; they were an
expansion team in an era without free agency and only 27 other teams.
In the modern NFL, the inability to go an entire season without a win is a
much more "impressive" feat, given that the salary cap has compressed the
talent levels among the various teams (except in New England) and there
simply aren't enough NFL-caliber quarterbacks to fill out the depth charts
for 32 teams.
And anyone who has amassed the kind of fortune
and fame enjoyed by Fins owner Wayne Huizenga is surely proud enough to want
to not be the man who presided over what arguably would be the worst
regular-season in league history.
So with some winnable games left (the Bills
twice, the Jets, and the Bengals), the smart money is on Lemon keeping the
job until there's at least a "1" in the column with the "W" at the top.
Ironically, getting that sole win could be
Lemon's kiss of death as the starter. Because once the pressure to
avoid matching the memories of the undefeated 1972 Dolphins with an 0-16 in
2007 is gone, it will make sense to give Beck some live reps as he prepares
to be the full-time starter in 2008.
POSTED 11:55 a.m. EDT; LAST
UPDATED 12:26 p.m. EDT, October 31, 2007
STROUD FACES SUSPENSION
As it turns out, Angelo Wright's intuition was
accurate.
The agent for defensive tackle Grady Jackson
sensed that something was going on when the Jaguars called Wright on Sunday
night to commence talks aimed at bringing the veteran run-stuffer to
Jacksonville. Since the call came on Sunday after a game, we assumed
that maybe Marcus Stroud and/or John Henderson had been banged up in the
Bucs game.
As it turns out, Stroud likely will be
unavailable. Due to a looming suspension for violation of the policy
on anabolic steroids and related substances.
Our friends at 1010XL in Jacksonville have
broken the news of the looming suspension. Per the report, the "A"
sample has been confirmed as a positive and the "B" sample is still being
tested. Stroud will have a right to an appeal hearing before the
suspension is finalized.
So if Stroud gets to hang around for a few
more games before the suspension is imposed, it means that Jackson will have
a few more weeks to get ready to play.
UPDATE: The Florida
Times-Union
also is reporting the news. We don't know whether they had it
before 1010XL. If they did, good for them. If they didn't, good
for 1010XL. Maybe Stroud can investigate it during his month off.
SIMULTANEOUS CBS
DOUBLE-HEADER IN COLLEGE STATION?
On Monday, MDS reported that
folks in Houston and San Fran/Oakland might not see the greatest . . . game
. . . ever due to scheduling conflicts with the broadcasts of the local
teams' game.
The Texans and the Raiders
play in Oakland. Both Texans-Raiders and Pats-Colts will be aired by
CBS. In San Fran/Oakland, the only hope for non-DirecTV Sunday Ticket
viewers who don't feel like hanging out at a bar is to not buy
tickets to the Raiders game and hope for a blackout. (Though blackout
rules ordinarily would block any other game from being aired at the same
time, the rule apparently doesn't apply in two-team markets.)
In Houston, there's no
alternative. The Texans are the road team, so their game must air.
But we're catching wind of a
plan in College Station, Texas to broadcast both games at the same time.
As we're hearing it, the local CBS affiliate struck a deal with the local
cable company to pipe the Waco, Texas feed of the Pats-Colts game on a
separate channel normally used for pay-per-view programming.
Thus, both games will be
available for viewing.
Unless, of course, the fact
that we're publicizing the intended move prompts the NFL and/or CBS to tell
the folks in Waco that they're not permitted to funnel their feed to the
local cable company in College Station.
Oops?
POSTED 10:42 a.m. EDT; LAST
UPDATED 11:21 a.m. EDT, October 31, 2007
AGENTS CLOSING IN ON BIG-NAME ROOKIES
Though the 2008 draft is nearly six months
away, the NFL grapevine already is tying some of the big-name rookies to
big-name agents. Players cannot sign with agents, however, until after
the players' eligibility expires. (Technically, players can
sign with agents, but doing so will cause their eligibility to expire as of
that moment.)
Here's a summary of the current rumors linking
players to agents:
Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan is
expected to select Tom Condon.
Kentucky quarterback Andre Woodson could be
signing with Ben Dogra.
Mike Sullivan is the favorite to land
Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm.
The Tollners (who aren't brothers) are the
leading candidates to sign Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan.
Michigan running back Mike Hart is expected to
sign with Lamont Smith.
Joel Segal is the leading candidate to land
LSU defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey.
As to Ryan and Woodson, the selection of
Condon and Dogra, respectively, could create a little internal discomfort at
CAA, since Condon and Dogra both work there -- and since they both would be
trying to get their quarterback client taken before anyone else.
FUN WITH HALLOWEEN COSTUMES
Though we're not much for the
pagan ritual known widely as Halloween, costume selections are usually good
for a laugh or two.
Lions quarterback Jon Kitna,
for example, had a belly laugh at the expense of defensive line coach Joe
Cullen, who was arrested last year for driving his car in the buff.
Cullen was first spotted at a Wendy's, so Kitna wore to a Monday night party
a Lions hat and a phony bare chest. (We don't know what he did from
the waist down). He carried a Wendy's cup. Kitna's wife was
dressed as the Wendy's girl.
"A lot of the guys on the team
remember what happened," Kitna said. "It's far enough removed that you
can laugh at it now."
First of all, of course they
remember it. How in the hell could anyone forget it?
Second, it's one thing for
folks outside the organization to poke fun. It's another for one of
the team leaders to rub Cullen's face (or other body parts) in it,
regardless of whether it was one year ago or two decades ago.
As Drew Sharp of the
Detroit Free Press opines, "Kitna's
decision didn't make much sense because
Cullen has serious personal issues that'll require daily managing for
the remainder of his life. . . . Cullen exists exclusively in the
background with the Lions. I'm sure he doesn’t want any more attention
directed at what happened that night."
We agree, and we can't imagine
what Kitna was thinking on this one. Maybe God didn't fully cure that
Week Two concussion, after all.
Meanwhile, multiple readers
tell us that the costume them on NBC's Today show was The Munsters,
and that TiVi Barber was dressed as Spot the dragon. (Too bad Peyton
Manning didn't retire last year, or they would have had a perfect Herman.)
As one reader's wife exclaimed, "He left football for this?"
WEDNESDAY MORNING
ONE-PER-CLUB ONE-LINERS
by Michael David Smith
Rams coach Scott Linehan gave
his team
an extra day off during the bye week.
Cardinals V.P. Rod Graves will
discuss
contract extensions this week with the agents for LBs Calvin Pace and
Karlos Dansby.
POSTED 9:57 a.m. EDT,
October 31, 2007
ONE MORE YEAR FOR BILLICK?
There's talk in league circles that, despite a
disappointing performance by the Baltimore Ravens after a 13-3 result a year
ago, coach Brian Billick is not presently in danger of losing his job when
the 2007 comes to an end.
Word is that Billick will have one more year
to get the thing moving in the right direction. If they don't make it
to the playoffs in 2008, Billick is expected to be out of a job.
We're also hearing that the relationship
between Billick and G.M. Ozzie Newsome is beginning to show signs of wear
and tear. These two men have worked together for nine seasons, which
is a lifetime in NFL years.
With all that said, we think that Billick
could be in danger after 2007, depending on how the team finishes -- and
depending on whether there's another candidate available whom owner Steve
Bisciotti believes would be better than Billick.
POSTED 9:00 a.m. EDT; LAST
UPDATED 9:42 a.m. EDT, October 31, 2007
BUSH CAMP FIRES BACK
On Tuesday, Saints running back Reggie Bush
was sued by Lloyd Lake, co-owner of New Era Sports & Entertainment.
Lake claims that more than $291,000 in cash and other benefits were given to
Bush and his family under the assumption that Bush would be represented by
New Era.
Early Wednesday, the Bush camp fired back.
"We have not received a copy of the
complaint," Bush lawyer David Cornwell said in a statement that was e-mailed
to PFT at 7:28 a.m. EDT on Wednesday. "If published reports are
accurate, then the complaint establishes that their initial $3.2 million
'settlement demand' was extortion. As the attached criminal record and
employment history demonstrates, the ex-con plaintiff has been in and out of
prison over the past few years and probably has not earned $291,600 in his
lifetime. We look forward to reviewing his tax returns and pay stubs."
Said Cornwell in closing, "When we are served with the complaint, we will
respond – vigorously."
[Editor's note: A prior
version of this story ran a link to the document that Cornwell is
disseminating regarding Lake's criminal history and employment history.
After closer inspection, we realized that the document contains Lake's
Social Security Number. We will re-post it after we redact that
information -- which Cornwell probably should done before sending out the
document as an attachment . . . to a press release.]
We've got no problem with someone aggressively
defending themselves against civil lawsuits, but we prefer that the defenses
be mounted on the merits. So what if Lake has been in prison?
Bush and his family chose to associate with Lake and New Era co-owner
Michael Michaels.
And let's not forget that Bush and family
already have settled with Michaels, reportedly for an amount
between $200,000 and $300,000. Although evidence of the settlement
likely will not be admissible in a court of law in connection with Lake's
claims, Cornwell's statement is aimed squarely at the court of public
opinion.
Cornwell wants us all to conclude that,
because Lake went to prison once for "illegal use of a communication
facility" and again for violation of the terms of his supervised release, he
must be lying about giving money to the Bushes. Regardless of whether
logic and common sense support such a conclusion, the fact remains that
Michaels and Lake were in business together, and that Bush and family saw
fit to pay a nice chunk of change to Michaels.
In the court of public opinion, folks who have
done nothing wrong usually don't fork over that kind of money.
Also, the document produced by Cornwell
regarding Lake's criminal record reinforces the notion that there was a
business relationship between Lake and Bush. The document state that,
at the February 2006 sentencing hearing regarding Lake's violation of the
terms of his supervised release, NFLPA-certified agent David Caravantes
testified that Lake "has been working to assist New Era Sports Management in
signing Reggie Bush from the University of Southern California to a
contract."
As to Cornwell's suggestion that the initial
demand of $3.2 million was "extortion," we need to make two points.
First, Yahoo! Sports previously has reported that the FBI (apparently at
Cornwell's behest) investigated the extortion allegations and opted to take
no action. Also, the value of a civil lawsuit isn't based solely on
the out-of-pocket losses suffered by the plaintiff. Under many legal
theories, compensation for harm such as annoyance, inconvenience, and
emotional distress is available -- along with punitive damages. So if
Lake claims that he gave Bush and family more than $291,000 and if the
Bushes already have paid between $100,000 and $200,000 to Michaels, a joint
opening demand of $3.2 million wasn't unreasonable, and couldn't have been
extortion.
Cornwell's mention of Lake's lifetime earnings
and his tax returns and pay stubs is (in our view) a thinly-veiled reference
to the fact that Cornwell will attempt in defending this case to cause as
much collateral damages as possible for Lake. If Lake claims that he
gave the Bushes more than $291,000, Cornwell will work to gather evidence
suggesting that the money was obtained by Lake through improper means -- and
that Lake might have never paid taxes on the income that generated these
amounts. At that point, Cornwell might be able to get the FBI (or the
IRS) interested in the case.
But this is a two-edged sword that Cornwell is
juggling. Regardless of whether Lake earned the money fair and square
or generated it via transactions not reported to the IRS, if it is proven
that Lake did indeed give money to Bush and/or his family and that taxes
weren't paid by them, the FBI might end up being more interested in taking
down the guy with the household name -- if for no reason other than to send
the strongest possible message to the rest of us that messing with Uncle
Sam's cash has real consequences.
The saddest part of all of this for Bush is
that Cornwell had an opportunity to make all of this quietly go away without
anyone ever knowing about it. With Reggie making millions in football
money and advertising dollars, even as much as $3.2 million paid in early
April 2006 would have been money well spent. With the Lake and
Michaels mess out of the way, Bush likely would have been the No. 1 overall
pick in the draft, and he would still be raking in bling by the bucket from
the likes of Subway and Pepsi.
So now that the fur is starting to fly, it's
imperative that Cornwell provide his client with good, sound advice.
And, frankly, we're troubled by the "take no prisoners" approach that
Cornwell apparently plans to employ.
Though chain of dominoes still has a long way
to go, there's a possible end result in all of this that could make Reggie
the next NFL player to be a long-term guest of the federal government.
By opting to fight Lake bare-knuckled in lieu of working the situation out,
the chances of that happening are a lot higher than they otherwise would be.
SMOKING GUN IN GREEN CASE
On Tuesday, we reported that
the NFL is looking into the question of whether the Houston Texans complied
with the injury reporting rules in connection with the deactivation of
running back Ahman Green.
Green officially was listed as
"probable" (i.e., virtually certain to be available for normal duty)
for the Week Eight game against the Chargers. The
Texans'
injury report stated that Green was a limited participant in practice on
Wednesday and Thursday, and that he fully participated in practice on
Friday.
But coach Gary Kubiak's
comments from Monday forced us to check to see whether there are two guys
named "Ahman Green" on the roster.
Here's what Kubiak had to say:
"He came back Wednesday, practiced a little bit. The knee swelled up again,
uncharacteristic from what was happening the previous weeks. Thursday, he
was unable to go. He took a couple of reps Friday and basically told me, 'Coach,
I can't go. My knee is bothering me, it's hurting me. I need this
week.' That's where we're at right now and we'll see."
Wow. That's clear
evidence of a blatant conflict between the terms of the injury report and
the words of the head coach. The only thing that meshes is that Green
practiced on Wednesday on a limited basis. Thursday, when he
supposedly was a limited participant in practice, he didn't go at all.
On Friday, when he supposedly was a full participant in practice, he took
only "a couple of reps." Then, when it was time to apply a label to
Green, Kubiak listed Green as "probable" even though it was clear that he
was "out."
Green himself has corroborated
Kubiak's remarks. During a Tuesday appearance on Sports Radio 610 in
Houston, Green said that during pre-practice warmups on Wednesday, the knee
"would not get loose" and then "[s]welled up like a balloon."
We know what you're thinking.
Why in the hell do we care about whether a washed-up running back on a
worse-than-mediocre team did or didn't play in a game that resulted in a
blowout win for the Chargers?
The bigger issue here is the
integrity of the injury reports, which are put in place to ensure that there
will be no inside information for gamblers to attempt to access. All
of the steps that the NFL has taken to insulate trainers and assistant
coaches and the guys who wash the jock straps from the influences of Tony
Soprano will be meaningless is there isn't a swift and severe punishment for
such a blatant violation of the rules.
Apart from the gambling angle,
the ever-growing fantasy football industry has provided a nice boost to the
NFL's overall popularity. But nothing frustrates fantasy owners more
than late scratches of guys who, per the official injury report, were
virtually certain to be available for normal duty.
So for both of these reasons
we think the NFL needs to smack the Texans hard -- and not just by saying
that the Texans were wrong and the next team that does this will face
serious consequences. In this case, the Texans should be treated like
that next team, since anyone with an ounce of honesty or integrity would
have and should have told the truth about Green's situation.
He receives an $11.5 million signing bonus, a
guaranteed base salary of $6 million in 2007 (up from a non-guaranteed $1.5
million under his current deal), a guaranteed base salary of $6.5 million in
2008, a base salary in 2009 of $7 million, $6 million of which is
guaranteed, and non-guaranteed base salaries in 2010 through 2013 of $8.5
million, $9 million, $9 million, and $11.5 million.
So the total guarantee isn't $31 million, but
it's $30 million. (Apparently, the initial reports assumed that all of
the 2009 salary is guaranteed.)
Also, Romo's guaranteed newmoney is
more like $28.5 million, since guaranteeing his $1.5 million base salary
(nearly 8/17ths of which he has already earned) is meaningless.
What were the Cowboys going to do, cut him?
That $1.5 million was already in the bank.
And if we're going to count the $1.5 million
that he already was scheduled to make in 2007 within his total take, it's a
seven-year, $69 million contract. Which means that the average value
is less than $10 million per year.
Maybe Romo didn't want more. But he
definitely could have gotten more if he'd let this thing play out.
POSTED 9:52 p.m. EDT,
October 30, 2007
KUBIAK WON'T SAY "C" WORD
In yet another apparent example of the
lengths to which some NFL head coaches are willing to go to avoid having
their hands tied by the protections afforded to players who have suffered
from concussions, Texans coach Gary Kubiak refuses to say that quarterback
Matt Schaub sustained on Sunday a concussion.
"No,
they really didn't tell me that," Kubiak said on Monday in response to
questions regarding whether doctors told him that Schaub had a concussion.
"[He] just that he got dinged pretty good. He's having some
headaches."
Um, Gary? Maybe you had a few too many
undiagnosed concussions when you played football, because getting "dinged
pretty good" and having headaches a day later is . . . a . . . concussion!
"I'm not calling it anything," he said.
"I'm just saying he got dinged and he's not feeling very good today and
we'll wait and see."
My gosh, do these men think that the rest of
us are stupid? Or do they think that they're so much smarter than the
rest of us that anything they say will be accepted without scrutiny?
What next? Will Schaub show up on the
injury report as being a limited participant in practice because he "got
dinged"?
Though the league generally has made
significant strides in protecting players who have "gotten dinged" to the
point that they have headaches the next day, Kubiak's rock-headed remarks
prove that much work still remains to be done.
A whopping 124 persons have been named to the
list of preliminary candidates for enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of
Fame.
Is it too many? Well, Eric Metcalf is on
the list. So, yeah, it might go a bit deeper than necessary.
Solid bets to make it on the first try include
ageless cornerback Darrell Green and receiver Cris Carter. Other
notable names include the late linebacker Derrick Thomas (whose name is
unfortunately misspelled at the top of the HOF page listing the nominees),
linebacker Karl Mecklenburg, tight end Jay Novacek, tackle Tony Boselli, and
defensive end Richard Dent.
Jackson signed a one-year deal, and it will
become official on Wednesday if he passes a physical.
The 1997 sixth-round pick of the Raiders has
played for a variety of teams over the years, and spent 2006 and part of
2007 with the Falcons. He started seven games for Atlanta after suing
the team in the offseason for allegedly invading his privacy and defaming
him in 2006 as he was trying to land with a new team.
POSTED 8:53 p.m. EDT,
October 30, 2007
BUSH FINALLY GETS SUED
More than 18 months after word first broke
regarding allegations that Reggie Bush and/or his family received benefits
in violation of NCAA regulations while Bush was still eligible to play
college football at USC, Bush and his family have been sued by one of the
guys who allegedly gave them the benefits.
Charles Robinson and Jason Cole of Yahoo!
Sports report that a lawsuit filed by Lloyd Lake, co-owner of New Era Sports
& Entertainment, claims that Bush and/or his family received from November
2004 through January 2006
just over $291,000 in various forms of benefits -- including cash, a
car, and shelter.
More importantly for Bush and his paperweight
with the sculpture of the dude in the old-style helmet throwing the awkward
stiff arm, Lake will be meeting with the NCAA on Friday to spill his guts.
Bottom line? Though many have forgotten
about this story, things could get very interesting. Bush and family
have refused to talk about the situation, but will have no option once they
are required to give sworn depositions. And while some might think
they'll merely cite the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination, that
protection applies only to criminal jeopardy. There's no allegation
here that the Bushes did anything illegal. Instead, the claim is that
they took money from Lake under the assumption that Reggie would be
represented by New Era. When Reggie hooked up instead with Mike
Ornstein for marketing and Joel Segal for his football contract and didn't
pay back the money to Lake, the Bushes acquired potential civil liability to
Lake.
And if Reggie received benefits in violation
of NCAA regulations, his Heisman Trophy will be headed to Vince Young's
house, and the 2004 national championship could retroactively be in
jeopardy.
An industry source tells us that the Oakland
Raiders have parted ways with receiver Mike Williams.
Williams, the tenth overall pick of the Lions
in the 2005 draft, had been a major disappointment during his time in the
NFL. He was traded in the 2007 offseason to the Raiders, and some
thought that the reunion with coach Lane Kiffin, who worked with Williams at
USC, would turn his career around.
It didn't, and so Williams is done.
He'll be subjected to the waiver system.
If he clears waivers, he'll be free to sign with any team.
Williams initially was headed to the draft in
2004, by virtue of the trial court ruling in the Maurice Clarett litigation.
But because Williams hired an agent before the Clarett case was reversed,
Williams was not permitted to return to USC. He entered the 2005 draft
after sitting out a full year of football.
GARRETT REID GOES BACK TO
JAIL
The 24-year-old son of Eagles
coach Andy Reid is
heading back to jail after testing positive for opiates.
Garrett Reid had been under
house arrest while he awaits sentencing on a DUI charge. He recently
was jailed for several days after failing to appear for a test.
As we've said in other
contexts, the generation of a positive test when a guy knows that he's
subject to testing and when he realizes the consequences suggests that
either he's stoopid or he has a problem (or both).
The development is certain to
renew questions regarding whether coach AndyReid should step aside after the
2007 season. And those questions will likely intensify if the Eagles
fall to the Cowboys on Sunday night.
POSTED 5:42 p.m. EDT,
October 30, 2007
WYNN DONE FOR PACKERS
Green Bay rookie running back DeShawn Wynn, a
seventh-round pick who entered Monday night's game as the team's primary
ball-carrier,
has been placed on injured reserve after Wynn suffered a shoulder injury
against the Broncos.
Dorsey Levens a/k/a Ryan Grant, another
rookie, played well in place of Wynn, and could be in line to become the
go-to guy.
Wynn's roster spot has been filled by receiver
Koren Robinson, who was reinstated two weeks ago after a one-year suspension
for repeated violations of the substance-abuse policy.
But is there really a place for Robinson?
With Donald Driver still going strong, Greg Jennings emerging into a star,
and rookie James Jones getting the job done as the No. 3 man on the totem
pole, Robinson could end up spending the rest of the 2007 season as a kick
returner and, at best, a spot-duty wideout.
Of course, that role worked well for Robinson
two years ago in Minnesota, where he was named to his first and only Pro
Bowl due to his play on special teams.
POSTED 5:17 p.m. EDT,
October 30, 2007
BOLLINGER GETTING A SHOT IN MINNY?
Though Vikings coach Brad Childress will be
keeping his cards close to the vest to force the Chargers to prepare to face
multiple quarterbacks, a source with knowledge of the situation believes
that Brooks Bollinger will be starting on Sunday.
"If Tarvaris [Jackson] can play he'll play,"
coach Brad Childress said on Monday.
But it was Bollinger who kind of got the
offense moving a bit after Kelly Holcomb had his head rammed into the carpet
at the Metrodome.
And it's Bollinger who, as of now, is
preparing to be the guy come Sunday.
Whether Bollinger can keep the job remains to
be seen. But he can't perform much worse than Jackson and Holcomb have
played.
POSTED 4:26 p.m. EDT,
October 30, 2007
HOUSTON IN HOT WATER OVER GREEN
DEACTIVATION?
We suppose it shouldn't be surprising to
anyone that Texans coach Gary Kubiak might be in a little trouble for an
injury reporting violation. After all, Kubiak was the offensive
coordinator in Denver, and he learned at the knee of Mike Shanahan, who has
been in trouble in the past for fudging the injury reports.
Just last night, for example, the Broncos
continued to list safety John Lynch as "probable" to return to the game,
even after he was spectating with his pads off. But, in NFL parlance,
"probable" means "virtual certainty." The only thing Lynch was
virtually certain to do was not re-enter the game.
Kubiak and the Texans might be in trouble over
the manner in which the team handled running back Ahman Green in Week Eight
against the Chargers. He was listed as "probable" (i.e.,
virtual certainty) for Sunday's game at San Diego with a knee injury.
Green participated in practice on a limited basis on Wednesday and Thursday
of last week, and fully participated in practice on Friday.
Come Sunday, however, Green was deactivated.
Per NFL spokesman Greg Aiello, the league
office is looking into the situation. And we take that to mean that
there was no Saturday downgrading of Green to questionable, doubtful, or
out.
Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, this is as good as spot as any to
share the Mike Shanahan in-game injury reporting definitions, which a reader
forwarded to us last night during the Live Blog of the Packers-Broncos
Monday nighter.
Probable -- player is at the game.
Questionable -- player is at the hospital.
Doubtful -- player is deceased.
Out -- player has been cremated (or he failed
a lie detector about being dead).
Jackson was cut abruptly last week by the
Falcons.
Agent Angelo Wright told the Times-Union
that Jackson would sign a one-year deal. Wright said that the
Jaguars contacted him on Sunday night after the team's 24-23 win over the
Buccaneers.
Interestingly, Wright sensed that "something
is going on" that prompted the Jaguars to call him. It could be that
one of the starting defensive tackles, Marcus Stroud and John Henderson,
suffered an injury in the most recent game. No information regarding
their status is required to be disclosed until Wednesday.
Jackson has every incentive to land with a new
team and show what he can do. If he can, he'll be in play for a new
contract on the free-agent market in March 2008.
Like many defensive tackles, however, there's
a chance that Grady will lose some steam once he gets paid.
POSTED 12:16 p.m. EDT,
October 30, 2007
ROMO MISSED A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY?
Our initial reaction to the news of the Tony
Romo deal was that, if Jerry Jones has waited this long to get the thing
done, why didn't he wait until after the season? Romo's leverage was
already extremely high -- it could have gone down a lot farther than it
would have increased if, for example, his performance would diminish down
the stretch of the 2007 season, or if he would suffer an injury that renders
him unavailable deep into the 2008 offseason.
But one league source who is not an agent and
who has no connection to the Cowboys tells us that Jones was wise to lock
Romo in at $11 million per year and $30 million guaranteed.
The source also said that, from the agents'
perspective, it's the worst deal he has ever seen.
"The dynamics were set up to change the
market," the source said, pointing out that Jones has been desperate to find
a franchise quarterback ever since Troy Aikman was nudged out of town.
Taking all of the circumstances into account, the source believes that
Romo's leverage was second only to Peyton Manning's after the 2003 season,
when his crippling franchise tender forced the Colts into a corner.
In the end, however, the source regards the
Romo deal as essentially equivalent to the contract signed by Rams
quarterback Marc Bulger at the outset of training camp. But while the
contracts are comparable, are the players equivalent?
Said the source: "Any team would give up
Bulger and a first-round draft pick for Romo."
The market moving forward, as the source sees
it, is that mediocre quarterbacks should get $30 million guaranteed on
contracts averaging $11 million or $12 million per year. Elite
quarterbacks should get $14 million to $15 million per year, with $40
million to $45 million guaranteed.
Thus, it just might have been a great move for
the Cowboys and a bad move for Romo.
As the source explains it, Romo might have
been influenced by the reality that he entered the league as an undrafted
player, uncertain of his status and unsure as to when or if a real paycheck
would ever come. Players like that tend to be less inclined to aim as
high as they can -- and quicker to take a deal that, even if it doesn't
reflect the market, represents more money than the player ever could have
plausibly dreamed to earn.
Still, folks around the league who heard that
the Romo deal might be coming were bracing for the same kind of shock waves
that were felt when defensive end Dwight Freeney parlayed a handful of sacks
in 2006 into $12 million per year and $30 million guaranteed. The only
shock that arose from the Romo deal is that it does not compare favorably to
deals done before the 2006 spike in the salary cap (i.e., Manning and
Carson Palmer).
POSTED 9:10 a.m. EDT; LAST
UPDATED 10:07 a.m. EDT, October 30, 2007
KRAFTS UNCOMFORTABLE WITH BLOWOUTS?
Chris Mortensen of ESPN raised an interesting
point during last night's Packers-Broncos pregame, which turned out to
essentially be a six-day-early pregame for Pats-Colts.
Mort addressed the question of whether the
manner in which the Patriots are pummeling the opposition is making team
owner Bob Kraft uncomfortable. To support Mort's hypothesis, he showed
video of Kraft and son Jonathan in their suite near the end of their team's
Week Eight win against the 'Skins.
Imputing discomfort to them based on that
video, however, is a subjective exercise, and we think it's simply too hard
to divine from a five-second snippet with no audio whether the folks who
write the checks are unhappy with the fact that the folks they're paying
might be doing their jobs too well.
That said, it's an intriguing wrinkle in this
history-before-our-eyes year. Barring a New England-Washington Super
Bowl in the next four seasons, Pats coach Bill Belichick won't have to face
Joe Gibbs and the Redskins again until 2011. By then, Gibbs surely
will no longer be the coach.
But the Krafts deal with Redskins owner Dan
Snyder on a regular basis, via the various league meetings that are
sprinkled throughout the calendar and through any other committees or
projects on which both teams are working. The bigger picture here is
that all of the league's 32 owners are business partners. Sure, they
compete with each other on the field. But they are all on the same
page (or at least they should be) when it comes to the best interests of the
overall enterprise.
So if the football team owned by the Krafts
goes too far in its effort to pound the football team owned by Snyder into
the Gillette Stadium FieldTurf, it could lead to an awkward moment or two
the next time that the paths of Kraft and Snyder cross.
Though these are hardly new issues for a
league that has been around for nearly a century, we're dealing with a
competitive reality that simply hasn't occurred since the NFL became a
complex, billion-dollar business. Despite all of the efforts to level
out the field via free agency and the salary cap, one of the franchises has
gotten so good that it is running roughshod against all the rest of them.
And showing little or no mercy in the process.
From that perspective, the dynamics that now
must translate from the locker room to the board room are indeed
unprecedented.
Thus, if the Krafts are uncomfortable, it
might simply have to do with the fact that they're the first owners in the
modern era of the industry who have the keys to a machine that can destroy
everything in its path -- and that is driven by a man who is willing to do
so.
PATS-COLTS LITE COMING NEXT
MONTH
As the football world prepares
for what could be the biggest game in NFL regular-season history, there's
another game on the horizon that merits keeping our collective eyes on.
On November 29, the Packers
and the Cowboys will get together in Texas Stadium for a Thursday night
contest. Both teams currently are 6-1. Both could be 10-1 by the
time Week Thirteen rolls around.
If that happens, it could be
the biggest regular-season game in the NFC since Niners-Giants in 1990.
And it will likely have
significant postseason ramifications. For the Cowboys, they likely
will need to keep winning to stay ahead of the Giants in the NFC East.
For the Packers, there's a real possibility of bending the road to Glendale
through Lambeau, especially since they already hold the tiebreaker with New
York.
Sure, either team would be a
20-point underdog in a Super Bowl against the Patriots. But that would
only make the win all the much sweeter if/when the Cowboys or the Packers
somehow shock the world in February.
But only one of them can make
it there. And only fans with access to the local broadcasts of the
game in the Dallas and Green Bay markets will be able to see this one.
Unless, of course, they have
NFL Network.
The solution for the rest of
you who don't have NFL Network? Get NFL Network. Before November
29.
And if your cable company
still doesn't carry it, make yourself heard. Find out how by clicking
the NFLN ad in the left margin of this page.
EAGLES PUNT 2005
SECOND-ROUND PICK
Second-round picks are a
precious commodity in the NFL. For the Eagles, a second-rounder in
2007 could become the heir to Donovan McNabb.
But if Kevin Kolb turns out
like the team's second-rounder from two years earlier, McNabb might be
around for a long time.
On Monday, the Eagles
dumped linebacker Matt McCoy, a day after the 2005 second-round pick was
flagged for slamming Vikings punter Chris Kluwe to the ground after a punt
return.
Though the penalty might have
been the catalyst, this one apparently wasn't a shocker. McCoy
couldn't stick in the starting lineup, and there's no reason to keep him
around if he's going to be taking out his frustrations after the whistle
during the few occasions he's on the field.
TUESDAY MORNING
ONE-PER-CLUB ONE-LINERS
by Michael David Smith
Asked whether he would take
any measures to make sure his signals weren't stolen against the Patriots,
Colts coach Tony Dungy said, "We
do that all of the time. Everybody we play, we do that."
Said Jets WR Laveranues Coles
of QB Chad Pennington getting benched, "It's difficult because I'm great
friends with Chad, so the main thing is how he feels.
I'm going to pretty much feel the way he feels. If he's cool with
it, then I'm cool with it."
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin
likes the way QB Ben Roethlisberger reacts
when plays break down.
Chargers FB Lorenzo Neal on
beating the Texans: "[Y]ou've got to realize you're playing a team that's
struggling. They're young. It is what it is. You've got to
look at all three of the teams we've beat.
They're not the cream of the NFL."
Says Cowboys coach Wade
Phillips of watching games from home during the bye week, "You
can't get a whole lot from TV. You can't tell all the things the
coaches need to know."
After getting home from
London, Giants QB Eli Manning said, "I
didn't play well. I had my share of bad throws and misses."
Redskins coach Joe Gibbs likes
how his team is responding to
getting blown out.
A league source tells us that the report of
$31 million in guaranteed money to be paid to Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo
is a bit high.
Per the source, the true amount of the
guarantee is $1 million too high.
Given that Romo is otherwise getting $30
million guaranteed, it's not like he'll to make any adjustments to his
Twinkies budget. Then again, based on how puffy he looked in a T-shirt
before that Monday night game a few weeks back against the Bills, it might
be a good idea to scratch all of the the Hostess snack cakes line items from
his monthly spending allowances.
Of course, if he does that, there won't be
anything for
Britney Spears to eat if she ever stops by his house.
A QUICK RADIO REMINDER
For folks who are inclined to
listen to the stuff that yours truly makes up while speaking
extemporaneously on live radio, the weekly calendar of spots is available
right here.
This week, currently scheduled
visits include KMBE in Houston, 1570 The Zone in Louisville with Dave Ragone
and Rob Goodell (no relation to Roger), KFAN in Minneapolis with P.A. and
Dubay, WDAE in Tampa with Steve "The Big Dog" Duemig, WIP in Philly with
Glen Macnow, Sporting News Radio with Todd Wright, WFNZ with Chris "Move
on or Move Out" McClain, WQAM in Miami with Joe Rose and Jason Jackson,
Team 1200 in Ottawa with the guys whose names we can't remember (and we
aren't sure whether or not they rhyme with a part of the female anatomy),
ESPN Radio in Atlantic City with WVU alum Mike Gill, WNST in Baltimore
with Drew Forrester, The Brady Ackerman Show in various Florida markets,
1010XL in Jacksonville with Frank Frangie and Mike Dempsey, WBAL in
Baltimore with Steve Davis, the Sports Junkies of WJFK in D.C. for the
Redskins pregame show, and FOX Sports Radio with Dan Moriarty and Lincoln
Kennedy.
The web sites for each of
these stations are easy to find, and most if not all of them stream their
programming live.
So tune in. Because you
never know when I might say that a given team "will get
blowed out." Twice.
POSTED 7:39 p.m. EDT,
October 29, 2007
FALCONS PUNISH HALL FOR COMMENTS
Chris Mortensen of ESPN reports that the
Falcons have fined cornerback DeAngelo Hall $50,000 for his recent comments
criticizing the team for cutting defensive tackle Grady Jackson.
Technically, the team is merely enforcing the
full amount of the $100,000 fine imposed on him after a meltdown during a
game against the Panthers, during which Hall was fined three times for 67
yards on the same drive.
Apparently, the Falcons told Hall that, if he
keeps his mouth shut, the fine will be cut to $50,000. Since Hall
hasn't, the $50,000 has been reinstated.
POSTED 7:22 p.m. EDT,
October 29, 2007
JEFF GEORGE WANTS BACK IN
Sean Jensen of the St. Paul Pioneer Press
reports that 39-year-old quarterback Jeff George, the No. 1 overall pick
in the 1990 draft, is lobbying to be signed by the Vikings.
George called our buddy Paul Allen of KFAN on
Monday to see if P.A. would gauge the team's interest.
"I know they're banged up," George told
Jensen. "But with a running back like Adrian Peterson, I would be
licking my chops. With that running back,
you need someone who can throw that deep ball, and I know I still can.
I don't care about the talent at receiver."
George spent a season with the Vikings in
1999, and replaced a sputtering Randall Cunningham while the Vikings were
2-3 and losing to the Lions. George nearly pulled off the comeback,
but did enough to win the job -- and he led the Vikes into the postseason,
where they lost to the Rams in the divisional round.
Our take? At the risk of sounding like
Jason Whitlock, George should get a shot. The current crop of Vikings
quarterbacks -- Brooks Bollinger, Tarvaris Jackson, and Kelly Holcomb --
might as well change their names to "stink," "stank," and "stunk."
POSTED 6:52 p.m. EDT,
October 29, 2007
ROMO GETS PAID
Ed Werder of ESPN reports that the Cowboys and
quarterback Tony Romo have agreed in principle on a six-year, $67.5 million
contract, including $31 million in guaranteed money.
Several weeks ago, we reported that Romo was
looking for guaranteed money in that range. And he publicly denied our
report.
Apparently, Romo has changed his mind since
then.
We think that the Cowboys should have waited
until the end of the season to get it done. His value wasn't going to
go much higher, and the number could have gone down if Romo had stunk it up
or gotten hurt.
Then again, doing the deal now allows the
Cowboys to push some of the cap charge into the current year, making it
easier to fit the rest of the deal into the future years.
Werder said that the deal is believed to be
the highest in Cowboys history. Memo to Ed: "Ya think?"
With only a handful of NFL contracts ever cracking $30 million in guaranteed
cash, it's a no-brainer.
Romo also "is believed to be" the first
undrafted player to reel in more than $30 million in guaranteed money.
POSTED 4:12 p.m. EDT,
October 29, 2007
JETS BENCH CHAD
The New York Jets have opted to send
quarterback Chad Pennington to the bench in favor of second-year pro Kellen
Clemens.
"I made this decision not based on singling
out Chad for where we are, but based on the fact that
I think Kellen
has earned this opportunity," coach Eric Mangini said. "I want to
give him this opportunity. It's in no way an indication that Chad is
solely responsible. We all are."
The Jets are struggling at 1-7, and are only a
field goal against the Fins away from being winless.
In seven starts this season, Pennington has
generated a respectable 87.5 passer rating. But 1-6 isn't good enough
to keep the job, and the move could be the precursor for a trade after the
season.
Clemens, on the other hand, has not performed
well in limited action. He threw two interceptions on Sunday in relief
of Pennington, and his passer rating for the season is only 46.0.
Still, the team invested a second-round pick
in Clemens in 2006, and it's high time for a change at the quarterback
position. If for no reason other than to get Clemens ready to take
over in 2008.
POSTED 3:55 p.m. EDT,
October 29, 2007
WILBON SUGGESTS TAKING OUT BRADY
I mentioned earlier in the day the possibility
that "[s]ome crazy-ass defensive lineman" might decide late in the latest
Patriots blowout win that he doesn't like the fact that quarterback Tom
Brady is still on the field, and that said "crazy-ass defensive lineman"
might opt to go Vince Wilfork on Brady's knee.
Though some readers have assumed that this
means I'm actually encouraging some crazy-ass defensive lineman to take out
Brady's knees, let's be clear on this. I'm merely recognizing the
obvious. It would be reckless and irresponsible to argue that a player
should actually target Tom's patellar tendon.
Of course, not every writer apparently feels
this way.
Mike Wilbon of the Washington Post
(whom we like) has openly advocated taking out Tom's kneecaps during a
Monday chat session.
The question was as follows: "I can
understand Bill Belichick's desire to crush every team in the NFL, but why
keep your franchise QB in there to do it? One cheap shot helmet to the
knee and it's goodbye Super Bowl unless [Matt] Cassell suddenly gets good."
Says Wilbon in response: "You're
absolutely right. And if I was on the opposing team,
I'd hit Tom Brady with everything I had as late as I could and take the
penalty and join the fight that would surely follow. Football is a
violent game and there's got to be somebody out there sharpening his fan[g]s
for the Patriots Golden Boy in the 4th quarter one of these weeks."
We expect to hear more and more about taking
out Brady as the weeks go by -- and we think that the team with the most to
gain via his absence needs to be monitored closely for low hits this
weekend, especially since Colts defensive line coach John Teerlinck has a
reputation in league circles for teaching his pupils to aim for the ACL.
POSTED 3:30 p.m. EDT,
October 29, 2007
SORGI WILL CARRY THE CLIPBOARD FOR THREE
MORE YEARS
Colts backup quarterback Jim Sorgi could have
tested the waters of free agency in March 2008. Instead, he has opted
to stay put in Indy for three more seasons.
Sorgi previously was making $850,000 in 2007
base salary.
The move keeps the former Wisconsin
quarterback in line for more mop-up duty. It's unlikely that he'll be
called upon to actually play during any meaningful game, given that Manning
has started in 151 straight contests and counting.
POSTED 1:13 p.m. EDT; LAST
UPDATED 1:25 p.m. EDT, October 29, 2007
T.J. STIRS THINGS UP
Okay, it's not a huge story. But
it likely would have been if another Bengals receiver had made the remarks
in question.
We're referring to the comments of Cincy
wideout T.J. Houshmandzadeh, who reacted to a decision of coach Marvin Lewis
to kick a field goal from the Steelers' two instead of going for the
seven-pointer as follows: "That's why they're 5-2 and we're 2-5,''
Houshmandzadeh said. ''Good teams put it in the end zone.
Teams like us kick field goals.''
Though Lewis acknowledges that he probably
should have gone for the score, it's another example of a player calling out
his head coach -- and we don't like it.
Again, we're not sure how much attention
Houshmandzadeh's comments will get. But we're certain that they would
have been splashed all over the place if they'd propagated from the pie hole
of Ocho Stinko.
The decision to kick the three-pointer was
heavily booed by the home-town fans.
UPDATE: In a separate
article, Houshmandzadeh addresses the decision to kick the field goal, and
he hardly gives it a glowing endorsement: "I thought we were going to
go for it, but coach Lewis decided he wanted to kick the field goal.
He's the head coach, so that's what we did."
PFT ANNIVERSARY COMING UP
We're not sure what, if
anything, we're going to do to commemorate the sixth anniversary of the
launch of PFT.
It falls on Thursday of this
week, and we want to thank all of you in advance for being members of the
extended family known as PFT Planet.
We've got some good stuff
coming up in the not-too-distant future, and we'll probably talk a little
bit about it on Thursday. Heck, we might even come up with a way to
hype some type of an overblown "announcement" in order to get as many of you
as possible to give us a visit on November 1.
POSTED 12:10 p.m. EDT,
October 29, 2007
BRITISH MEDIA NOT IMPRESSED WITH DOLPHINS,
GIANTS by Michael David Smith
Reading the London newspapers the day after
the NFL's first regular-season game in Europe, it's hard not to come away
thinking that the American version of football has a long, long way to go
before it catches on overseas.
"Protracted gaps between plays can be filled
by cheerleading displays -- and the Miami girls were more than game -- but
entertainment on the pitch depends on a level of guile and execution that
the London drizzle did not permit," Brown writes. "Miami's first drive did
not augur well as Cleo Lemon, an unconvincing stand-in quarterback with
Trent Green out for the season, found an early pass to Jason Peelle cut out
before Jay Feely missed the consolation field goal."
The most favorable write-up among the local
press comes from Alan McKinlay of the Mirror, who describes the
Wembley crowd as "passionate
fans who knew what they were watching." But McKinlay's entire article is
just seven paragraphs long, and one of those paragraphs is speculation about
whether English soccer matches could be played in New York or Miami.
McKinlay also may have the best sense for why
the NFL wants to play games in Europe, noting that the game could mean "the
sale of millions of pounds worth of merchandise."
HOUSTON WILL MISS COLTS-PATRIOTS
by Michael David Smith
Sunday's Colts-Patriots game may be the
biggest regular-season game in NFL history, but at least one major media
market will miss it.
In Houston (and in small markets in parts of
Nevada and Central California), the CBS affiliate will be showing the Texans
taking on the Raiders. It's not yet known whether the CBS affiliate in the
Bay Area will show Colts-Patriots or Texans-Raiders. If the game sells out
in Oakland within 72 hours prior to kickoff, that game will be shown on
local TV.
If the Raiders don't sell out, the local CBS
affiliate will show Colts-Patriots. That means there will be quite a few
football fans in the Bay Area hoping that the Raiders will get blacked out
and that they'll get to watch the better game without having to purchase
DirecTV or go to a sports bar.
NFL spokesman Seth Palansky tells me via
e-mail that even if the Bay Area and Houston both show Texans-Raiders, the
Colts-Patriots game will be seen by 94 percent of the country, which is
almost unheard of for regionalized broadcasts. But that still means
six
percent of fans are missing out on the Game of the Century.
MONDAY MORNING ONE-PER-CLUB
ONE-LINERS by Michael David Smith
Eagles QB Donovan McNabb is feeling good
enough about his mobility that he asked coach Andy Reid to
call a quarterback draw during Sunday's win over the Vikings.
Bears RB Cedric Benson says, "I've been
hearing a lot of people criticize and talk stuff. They're not watching the
games or the plays.
They're just throwing out criticism."
The Rams' cornerbacks struggled all day
against the Browns' receivers, but Tye Hill said afterward, "They aren't any
better than what we
see day in and day out."
'SKINS, GIBBS HAVE WON BIG, BUT HAVE CALLED
OFF THE DOGS
It's a testament to the greatness of the New
England Patriots that the dominant topic in the wake of their games is
whether they left their starters on the field for too long while blowing out
the competition.
Still, Patriot Nation is up in arms over the
notion that anyone would dare to suggest that their team or its head coach
needs a lesson or two in sportsmanship -- reflecting to a certain degree the
attitude projected by said team and said coach.
Only a day after being flooded with e-mails
from Colts fans accusing me of having a bias in favor of the Pats for
criticizing Gregg Easterbrook's "Colts are good, Pats are evil" essay from
last Tuesday, I'm now being flooded with e-mails from Pats fans accusing me
of having a bias against them.
Sheesh.
My take on whether I think the Pats went too
far on Sunday -- and, more importantly, why I think they're doing it -- is
summed up at the top of the
Ten-Pack posted at SportingNews.com. Check it out, and then come
back for more.
Folks defending the Pats' 52-7 victory have
been attempting to turn the tables on their most recent victims, pointing to
a couple of past Joe Gibbs romps, in which the 'Skins scalped the opponents
for more than 50 points. Specifically, the Redskins rattled the Rams,
51-7,
during a 1983 playoff game, and they
fricasseed the 49ers by the score of 52-17 little more than two years
ago.
But there's a difference. A big
difference. In both of those games, the 'Skins apparently called off
the dogs well before the fourth quarter. For example, the Redskins led
the Rams 38-7 at halftime in the 1983, and scored only six points in the
third quarter on two field goals and seven in the fourth quarter on an
interception return for a touchdown. In 2005, the Redskins didn't
throw a single pass after the 3:30 mark in the third quarter, and Clinton
Portis didn't get another carry.
On Sunday, the Pats led 38-0 with 11:02 to
play in the game and converted a fourth-and-one from the D.C. seven en route
to yet another touchdown pass from Tom Brady.
And that's the broader point here. It's
not about scoring a lot of points early in the game. It's about when
it's appropriate to pull back. For the 1983 Redskins, they apparently
pulled back in the entire second half against the Rams. In 2005, the
'Skins coasted for more than a full quarter.
But the Patriots haven't eased up on offense
until the final few -- and likely won't. On defense, starters were
still on the field in the final minute on Sunday.
The criticism will only embolden Belichick,
and it will make him even more determined to win every game by the biggest
margin that he can muster. The only risk? Some crazy-ass
defensive lineman eventually might decide he's had enough of it, deciding to
gladly take the penalty, the fine, and the suspension for taking a free shot
at the starting quarterback's knees.
POSTED 8:09 a.m. EDT,
October 28, 2007
NEDNEY APOLOGIZES FOR GESTURE
49ers kicker Joe Nedney, caught on camera
giving the middle finger to fans who were serenading him with boos after he
put a kickoff out of bounds with the home team trailing 24-3, has said he's
sorry.
"I
apologize for my gesture at today's game," Nedney said, according to the
San Jose Mercury News. "It is tough to be part of a loss and my
emotions got the best of me. Nobody is harder than ourselves on our
team. I know losing is tough for fans, too. It was an emotional
response during the game and again, I apologize."
Here's a look
at past fines for flipping the bird, written by Gene Collier of the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in the wake of last November's double-barreled
middle finger routine directed by Falcons quarterback Mike Vick to jeering
fans after a home loss at the Georgia Dome.
POSTED 9:53 p.m. EDT,
October 28, 2007
GODFREY BLASTS BELICHICK
Tom Curran of NBCSports.com reports that
Redskins linebacker
Randall Godfrey is upset with the manner in which the Patriots continued
to pour it on while comfortably ahead of the Redskins on Sunday.
"I said something to [Belichick] after the
game," Godfrey told Curran. "I told him, 'You need to show some
respect for the game.' You just don't do that. I don't care how
bad it is. You're up 35 and you're still throwing deep? That's
no respect.
"You look at all the great head coaches . . .
I'm just disappointed," he said. "You gotta show some class, show some
respect. Joe Gibbs? We wouldn't have done that. Bill
Walsh? You wouldn't see those types of guys doing that stuff.
I've never seen nothing like that. Most teams, you get up like that
you sit on the ball and try to run the time out. They're up 30-some
points and they're throwing deep. That was blatant disrespect. I
hope we can see them again, definitely. You don't see Joe Gibbs doing
that. You can't even imagine that kind of stuff coming from him.
Joe Gibbs. Bill Walsh. Bill Parcells. This isn't like
college going for power rankings. This is the pros you show some
respect, show some class."
But Belichick made no excuses for his team's
reputation for pouring it on in a Friday interview with Curran.
"I've been coaching too long," Belichick said.
"I remember being on that side. When I was coaching defense it was my
job to keep the score down, not theirs. When you're playing defense
it's your job to stop them. It's not [the offense's] job to not score.
It's like I tell the offense, what the [bleep] do you think I send you guys
out there for? To punt? We have a punt team for that.
That's not your job. Your job is to go out there and score points.
If you come off the field and you haven't scored points you haven't done
your job."
We still think there's a line, somewhere.
And though we don't know precisely where it is, we think it was crossed on
Sunday.
Several years ago, Broncos quarterback Jake
Plummer was fined for deftly giving a fan the middle finger, waving it
behind his head.
On Sunday, 49ers kicker Joe Nedney apparently
did the same thing -- and likely will be fined for it.
Here's the video evidence.
GIBBS, BELICHICK DID INDEED
SHAKE HANDS
Though many readers (and at
least one league insider) concluded after viewing the televised footage at
the end of the Redskins-Pats game that D.C. coach Joe Gibbs didn't shake the
hand of N.E. coach Bill Belichick, there's video evidence of the
flesh-pressing.
Our apologies for the
premature report to the contrary.
Multiple readers (including a league insider)
tell us that, at the conclusion of a 52-7 thrashing of the Redskins by the
New England Patriots, Washington coach Joe Gibbs ran off of the field
without shaking the hand of Pats coach Bill Belichick.
The stunning gesture from the mild-mannered
dean of the NFL coaching fraternity is the strongest rebuke that Belichick
could have gotten.
But we've played back the waning moments of
the game, and the video is inconclusive. If anything, it looks like
they did in fact shake hands -- and that the cameras merely didn't catch the
video of that specific moment.
Many readers have e-mailed in their opinion
that this time the Pats truly went too far in running up the score. My
own opinion on the matter will soon appear in the Ten-Pack that I'm
polishing off for the good folks at Sporting News.
POSTED 3:19 p.m. EDT,
October 28, 2007
HOLCOMB OUT
So much for Kelly Holcomb's second stint as
the Vikings' starting quarterback.
After completing only seven of 16 passes,
Holcomb had his head drilled into the FieldTurf at the Metrodome, and is out
with a head/neck injury. He was helped off of the field by
teammates.
Brooks Bollinger has entered the game in his
place. The Vikings trail the Eagles, 20-10.
POSTED 2:53 p.m. EDT,
October 28, 2007
JACKSON OUT WITH INJURY
Rams running back Steven Jackson returned to
action for the first time in a month after a groin injury. He scored a
touchdown early, and then left the game in the second quarter with a back
injury.
Meanwhile, a 17-3 Rams lead has evaporated.
If the Rams lose this one, they might not win
one at all this year. Regardless, Charley Casserly of CBS reiterated
on Sunday that coach Scott Linehan won't be fired during what could
ultimately be the first 16-loss season in league history.
POSTED 2:46 p.m. EDT,
October 28, 2007
SLOPPY CONDITIONS AT WEMBLEY
We don't advise the NFL playing a Super Bowl
at Wembley Stadium in London until they put a roof on it.
And until they install FieldTurf under it.
The first regular-season game in England
features plenty of rain and a slick, sloppy surface that is taking the punch
out of the passing game.
If it's like this in London when the calendar
reads late October, what would it be like in early February?
The Giants, by the way, are leading 13-0 early
in the third quarter. You can track the action at
NFL.com's Game Center.
UPDATE: Apparently,
there's a retractable roof. Either it has a really big hole in it, or
they've inexplicably decided not to close it.
POSTED 1:14 p.m. EDT,
October 28, 2007
NFL DELAYS KICKOFFS FOR GIANTS-FINS START
In a move which ensured that every American
NFL fan with access to a FOX affiliate could see the prelude to, and the
initial play of, the league's first-ever regular-season game overseas, the
league delayed the start of the other FOX games.
So after showing the performance of the U.S.
National Anthem and God Save the Queen, FOX aired the kickoff and
then cut to the other FOX-televised early contests, each of which had not
yet started.
Meanwhile, a reader has pointed out the irony
of the singing of the Star-Spangled Banner in England, given that it
was written as the British were bombing Baltimore's Ft. McHenry in 1814.
POSTED 12:43 p.m. EDT,
October 28, 2007
RAIDERS HOLDING RHODES FOR SPITE?
We recently reported that the Oakland Raiders
are thinking about dumping running back Dominic Rhodes. Both Jay
Glazer of FOX and Chris Mortensen of ESPN are reporting that the Raiders are
hesitating simply because they want to keep a couple of former coaches from
grabbing him.
Specifically, owner Al Davis doesn't want Jon
Gruden of the Bucs or Mike Shanahan of the Broncos to reel in Rhodes.
Per Mort, the Raiders have been trying to
figure out whether someone with waiver priority higher than the Bucs or the
Broncos would make a claim for Rhodes' contract, thereby blocking the Bucs
or Broncos from bringing him aboard.
Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher has an
arthritic condition in his back. Jay Glazer of FOX says that Urlacher
won't be undergoing surgery to correct it -- unless a disk in there bulges
or busts.
"It's
a problem that started all the way back in camp," Urlacher told Glazer.
"We've done x-rays, bone scans, MRI's, cat scans and this week I flew to
Pittsburgh and met with a specialist. He confirmed what the team told me,
that they think it's an arthritis type of thing. The thing that's so
frustrating is there is no clear cut solution to give me relief. I
just have to deal with the pain.
"The pain
is actually worse than when I tore my hamstring a couple of years ago,"
Urlacher said. "That injury was worse because I missed games though
but this causes more pain. It prevents me from bending and if I can’t
bend, I'm not able to be as athletic. I also can't back-pedal like I
need to. Right now we're trying to find pain solutions, I've got it
shot a bunch to try to find some relief and actually it felt better last
week.
Though our medical knowledge is extremely
limited, arthritis doesn't strike us as something that will heal itself on
its own. Thus, it could be that Urlacher will have to play with pain
for the rest of his career -- and that it will only get worse, not better.
WILL GREATEST . . . GAME .
. . EVER BE DERAILED
PFTV's final segment of the
week looks at whether next week's epic regular-season showdown between the
Pats and the Colts will be screwed up by either or both of them losing on
Sunday.
Jay Glazer of FOX reports that the Vikings
have named quarterback Kelly Holcomb the starter on Sunday, and that it's
Holcomb's job to lose.
Thus, once Tarvaris Jackson recovers from a
broken finger on his throwing hand and a lingering groin injury, Holcomb
will have the gig. Unless he blows it.
Holcomb started two games earlier in the year,
and lost both of them. But that was before running back Adrian
Peterson fully emerged as a serious threat. Now that opposing defenses
will focus on Peterson, who gets his first start over a healthy Chester
Taylor on Sunday, Holcomb might have more opportunities to throw passes to
open receivers.
Notable players who are out
include Panthers linebacker Dan Morgan, Bears cornerback Nathan Vasher,
Bengals running back Rudi Johnson, Browns defensive tackle Ted Washington,
Lions running back Tatum Bell, Colts receiver Marvin Harrison, Colts tackle
Tony Ugoh, Colts linebacker Freddie Keiaho, Giants running back Derrick
Ward, Eagles safety Brian Dawkins, Steelers defensive end Aaron Smith, Rams
defensive end Leonard Little, and Titans receiver Brandon Jones.
Chris Mortensen of ESPN reports that members
of the Buffalo Bills team aren't happy with the decision to bench
quarterback J.P. Losman.
Per Mort, some players perceive the move to be
an effort by owner Ralph Wilson to save money by keeping Losman from hitting
incentives in his contract.
Of course, if Trent Edwards plays well as the
starter, Losman's plight will be forgotten in time. And, by the end of
the season, he undoubtedly will be traded.
TERRY NEEDS TO WORK ON HIS
ENGLISH ACCENT
Terry Bradshaw offered up an
English accent at the start of the pregame show on FOX.
It was worse than his singing.
The effort reminded us of
Kramer's "not bloody likely" in Cockney.
Bradshaw also sounded off on
taking games overseas, suggesting that we should be growing the game in Los
Angeles before taking it elsewhere.
Chris Mortensen of ESPN reports that NFL
Commissioner Roger Goodell would like to play the Super Bowl in London at
some point over the next five to eight years.
But Mort explains that some of the owners have
concerns about such an approach, given that those with new stadiums would
like to host a Super Bowl of their own. The enormous economic benefit
that goes with hosting the game is a major boost for any city that brings
the Super Bowl to town, and the promise of a Super Bowl can be great
leverage in connection with efforts to get public money to build new NFL
venues.
So we think it's going to take some careful
tact and delicate diplomacy from Goodell to make this one happen. Then
again, he might be floating the 5-to-8 year window in order to help the
owners -- and the American NFL fans -- better come to grips with the notion
that, sooner or later, the biggest game in U.S. sports will be exported to
another land.
DITKA MAKES UP NEW WORDS
Okay, Mike. We like your
fire, but we encourage you to spend a little more time thinking about what
you're going to say before saying it.
At the top of ESPN's Sunday
NFL Countdown, Da Coach said that a game in England creates "disheaval"
for a team.
We assume he meant to say
"disarray" or "upheaval," and got discobabufused in midstream.
At least he followed it up by
saying, "I guess is a word" after saying it.
POSTED 11:34 a.m. EDT,
October 27, 2007
LONDON IS READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL
One of our readers in England pipes in with an
update on the scene in London. Here's what he says:
"The view from a pub outside Wembley stadium is fantastic. There are
thousands of fans here all wearing American football tops. The only
problem is hardly any of them are Giants or Dolphins tops! It looks
like just about every NFL team is represented here."
The
Giants and Dolphins kick off at 1:00 p.m. EDT. We think that
translates to 3:00 a.m. Wednesday in local time. (At least that's what
Channing Crowder told us.)
POSTED 10:48 p.m. EDT,
October 27, 2007
VIKES ALREADY EYEBALLING QUARTERBACKS
We reported last Sunday night that the
Minnesota Vikings already had decided to spend the 2008 offseason searching
for a quarterback who could become the starter in lieu of Tarvaris Jackson.
"Right now we're in the process of evaluating
the whole draft at every position, and this year there are some good
quarterbacks coming out and we're just in the process of trying to get those
guys lined up," V.P. of player personnel Rick Spielman told Hartman.
"The kid at Boston College, Matt Ryan, the
[André] Woodson kid at Kentucky, [John David] Booty's been hurt out at USC,
[Chad] Henne at Michigan, there's [Brian] Brohm at Louisville, Colt Brennan
at Hawaii," Spielman said. "So, there's a lot of guys right now, just
like we are at all the positions, just starting at the evaluation process of
looking at them all."
Seymour emerged from the Physically Unable to
Perform list on Wednesday. He had been on the PUP list from the outset
of training camp.
His return can only help. Look for him
to knock a little rust off of Sunday as he prepare for his real debut next
Sunday in the greatest . . . game . . . ever.
EASTERBROOK OFF THE MARK
As the ESPN hype machine
continues to ramp up for the greatest . . . game . . . ever, Gregg
Easterbrook of ESPN.com's TMQ has tried to graft
a good-and-evil-style theme onto the upcoming regular-season showdown
between the Colts and the Patriots.
Easterbrook makes the case for
the Colts being the good, and for the Pats being the ungood.
Though we like Easterbrook and
his work, his hypothesis about the looming Week Nine contest has all the
makings of a square peg being rammed through a round hole. (The prior
version of this item said that it was a square peg in a square hole, but
only because I have a round hole in my square head.)
Every NFL team has things to
like, and things to hate. Whether we as fans/media/Internet hacks
focus on the good or the bad is a matter of perspective. And
Easterbook's item suggests that, for whatever reason(s), he's inclined to
like the Colts and dislike the Pats.
Our guess is that his
perspective was honed by his conclusions regarding the Patriots' cheating
scandal, exacerbated by the
public tail-twisting he took from the ESPN.com ombudslady earlier this
month. But even though Easterbook is now inclined (consciously or not)
to diss the Pats and praise the Colts (or, possibly, anyone who is playing
the Pats), we think that he needs to be able to retain some semblance of
objectivity, even when editorializing.
As to the Colts, Easterbook
ignores plenty of things that undermine the notion that the franchise "carr[ies]
the banner of that which is beneficent: Sportsmanship, honesty,
modesty, devotion to community, embrace of traditional small-town life,
belief in higher power, even love of laughter."
Quarterback Peyton Manning
might be revered by Colts fans and superficially respected by sock puppets
who are afraid that Manning might use his bully pulpit to give them the Tony
Kornheiser treatment. But plenty of pro football fans think that
Peyton is a money-grubbing, me-first, whiny, pissy, finger-pointing jerk
with a huge head and the pecs of a grade-schooler. As the saying goes,
familiarity breeds contempt -- and the endless stream of commercials and
praise has given the fans of the other 31 franchises in the NFL good reason
to believe that Peyton is Darth Vader in a white helmet.
There also are several reasons
for those who wear that same white helmet to quietly resent Manning.
He seemed to fault his blockers for failing to protect the slow-footed
passer after a January 2006 playoff loss to the Steelers, Sal Paolantonio
points out in his new book that Manning blamed Dallas Clark for an
interception in Super Bowl XLI that was actually Manning's fault, and our
report regarding the special treatment that Manning apparently received in
connection with the team's Super Bowl ring ceremony (including an invitation
for his father, Archie, to attend) was met with an irrational overreaction
from the team, which prompted us (and others) to conclude that there was
fire at the bottom of all of the smoke.
Then there's G.M. Bill Polian.
He has a reputation in league circles of bullying others to get his way.
Per past reports, he openly roots for the Colts in the press box, he
criticizes officials without consequence, and he reportedly threw a
pint-sized employee of the Jets against a wall last season.
And what about those claims
that the Colts have done a little cheating of their own, by piping in fake
noise to disrupt opposing offenses?
So the Colts are no choir
boys, unless you're inclined to ignore a few warts on their
naked butt and rectum.
As to the Patriots,
Easterbrook has plenty of low-hanging fruit with which to work. Does
coach Bill Belichick come off at times (or most of the time) as a complete
jerk? Yep. Does he care? Nope. Is he able to get the
53 men who put on the pads every Sunday to perform at an incredibly high
level? Hell, yes.
Did he cheat? Yes.
Do others cheat? Apparently. As FOX's Jimmy Johnson has said,
Colts offensive line coach Howard Mudd is the best signal-stealer in the
league. (Also, some league insiders think that morbidly portly Colts
defensive line coach John Teerlinck teaches his players to dive at the knees
of quarterbacks.) And let's not forget that recent report from John
Czarnecki of FOX that the NFL shredded and burned the box of cheating
evidence surrendered by the Pats because it also included proof of cheating
by other teams.
Easterbrook also throws a
surprising haymaker at a player who rarely is criticized: "The team's
star, Tom Brady, is a smirking celebrity-chaser who dates actresses and
supermodels but whose public charity appearances are infrequent. That
constant smirk on Brady's face reminds one of Dick Cheney; people who smirk
are fairly broadcasting the message, 'I'm hiding something.'"
So "public charity
appearances" are good? What if Brady has opted to follow the Biblical
suggestion that alms be given discreetly? And what if Manning does his
charity publicly simply to enhance his ability to be perceived as a "good
guy"?
While we realize that the
detection of smirks is subjective, Brady has never come off to us as a
smirker. And while we likewise don't have a Tom Brady Fathead on the
wall at official PFT headquarters, it's hard not to have respect for a guy
who went from being an overlooked sixth-round pick to one of the best
quarterbacks in the game, and who is on pace to have the greatest season of
any quarterback in the history of the league.
Thus, the Pats have some good
to counter the bad.
That's why Easterbrook's
argument is such a stretch. And that's also why his editor would have
done him a huge favor by pointing out to him the flaws in his reasoning.
Pats fans understandably are up in arms over this one; though we know a
thing or two about alienating every single fan of a given team, the reaction
seems to be more intense where the opinion that causes the commotion simply
doesn't seem to be rooted in a fair consideration of all of the facts.
POSTED 5:05 p.m. EDT,
October 27, 2007
NO GO FOR GADO
A league source tells us that the Dolphins
were unable to take running back Samkon Gado on their trip to England
because Gado, a native of Nigeria, did not have the appropriate paperwork to
make the trip overseas.
As a result, the Fins received a one-week
roster exemption after snagging Gado off of waivers from the Texans last
week.
When the Dolphins return from London, they'll
have to cut a player or place someone on injured reserve.
POSTED 12:31 p.m. EDT,
October 27, 2007
VILMA SENT TO IR
The New York Jets have announced that
linebacker Jonathan Vilma has been placed on injured reserve.
It was reported earlier in the week by Rich
Cimini of the New York Daily News that Vilma could miss the rest of
the year with a knee problem. After the team's Week Seven loss to the
Bengals, coach Eric Mangini said that Vilma came out for a portion of the
game due to an injury that previously had not been disclosed. Vilma
later disputed the notion that he was hurt.
Either way, the league needs to be taking a
look at this one. Either Vilma is healthy and the Jets have opted to
squirrel him away in order to preserve the ability to trade him in 2008, or
he'd been hurt for a while and the Jets had failed to disclose it in the
injury reports. The only other explanation is that the injury first
occurred in the Bengals game. But that wasn't the gist of Cimini's recent
report.
Vilma was a first-round pick in 2004. He
struggled in 2006 to adapt to Mangini's 3-4 defense, but had been playing
much better this season.
POSTED 9:55 a.m. EDT; LAST
UPDATED 11:10 a.m. EDT, October 27, 2007
INTERNET IS A KEY COMPONENT OF "NFL GLOBAL"
We like what the NFL is doing with this whole
international football initiative. Not because we're now "company
men," but because we realize that more NFL fans in other countries means, in
time, more passionate NFL fans in other countries means, in time, more folks
scouring the Internet for information about the NFL means, in time, a lot
more readers for us means, hopefully soon, more cash for PFT.
Recent remarks from Commissioner Roger Goodell
recognize the importance of the Internet to the expansion of the popularity
of the NFL beyond the borders of the United States.
"We
will connect with more fans globally through digital media," Goodell
said this week at a sports business conference in London. "Digital
media expands the potential for communicating about our game and with our
fans. The Internet is the new town square, a place for fans across the
globe to gather and enjoy the NFL."
Amen.
Making the NFL as beloved in other countries
as it is in the U.S. will take time. Though Goodell's remarks included
an assertion that the NFL didn't become the most popular sport in the United
States until 1965, we think that pro football didn't fully complete the
climb over baseball until the mid-1990s, thanks to the NFL's version of the
hot-stove league that was spawned by free agency, the compression of the
talent levels among the teams due to the salary cap, and the disastrous 1994
baseball strike.
And 1994 was also the year that soccer was
supposed to become a big deal in the U.S., thanks to our hosting of the
World Cup. Though it spawned a U.S. pro soccer league that has somehow
survived for more than a decade, the MLS still "feels" like a second-tier
enterprise, somewhere between the WNBA and the Arena Football League.
Meanwhile, more and more little kids play soccer before any other sport, but
have no desire to follow the various professional versions of it.
So while soccer has saturated America without
striking a chord, the NFL has been merely sprinkling pro football in other
lands. The World League (or whatever it was called at any given
moment) was a start, but it wasn't the NFL. Exhibition games help, but
it doesn't match the intensity and significance of a regular-season game.
And one regular-season game won't be enough.
This is a long-term project. The NFL knows it, and the NFL is willing
to spend the time and the money required to make football as globally
popular -- and perhaps some day more popular -- than futbol.
"Our goal is to translate America's obsession
into the world's passion," Goodell said.
Though Goodell would likely say that the NFL's
goal doesn't include cutting into the market share of the sport that
inspired the word "gooooaaalllll," the league that became America's modern
pastime is aiming high. It might take 100 years, but eventually the
NFL will be the dominant pro sports league in the world.
Hopefully when that happens I'll be watching
from above, not below.
SHOULD VIKES BENCH JACKSON
FOR GOOD?
PFTV ponders the predicament
that's perplexing the people in purple. Should the Tarvaris Jackson
experiment end?
Have a look-see.
Jackson is questionable for
Sunday with a busted finger. If Holcomb can light up the passing game,
maybe he'll end up with the job.
SATURDAY MORNING ONE-LINERS
Former NFL MVP Rich Gannon
thinks that Bills QB Trent Edwards
could be a star.
The $250,000 fee that will be
paid for the use of Ralph Wilson Stadium for a January 1 hockey game between
the Sabres and the Penguins will be
paid directly to the Bills.
Some English soccer players
think that the Giants are, well,
really big people.
Jets CB Darelle Revis is
anxious for the rematch with the Bills: "They went after me in the
[first] game. Looking back at the film of that game, I could have made
a couple of those plays. You just have to have a short memory."
Former Harvard quarterback Vin Ferrara has
come up with a new idea for protecting the brain boxes of football players.
And it sounds crazy enough to work.
Inspired by a squeeze bottle containing saline
solution for nasal passages, Ferrara has come up with an internal cushioning
system consisting of 18 squeeze-bottle-type pads.
The New York Times takes an
in-depth look at the new helmet, which will be tested by three
high-school teams in November and is expected to be available for wide use
in 2008.
Kudos to Ferrara for coming up with the idea.
But why in the heck has it taken so long for someone to try to devise a
better way to protect the brains of football players?
POSTED 8:16 a.m. EDT,
October 27, 2007
FITZGERALD FACES PATERNITY SUIT
Taking a page from teammate Matt Leinart's
off-field playbook, Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald is facing a
paternity suit from a former Raiders cheerleader.
The mother is Angela Nazario, and she alleges
that the child is due in early January. She wants child support from
Fitzgerald, and he says that he's willing to provide it if a DNA test shows
that he's the father.
Court documents obtained by TMZ.com reveal a partial Mrs. Robinson
situation, with Fitzgerald at 24 years old and Nazario at 37.
