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POSTED 2:57 p.m. EST,
November 18, 2007
McNABB X-RAYS NEGATIVE
The Eagles' official web site reports that
x-rays on the ankle of quarterback Donovan McNabb
were negative.
McNabb sprained the ankle in the first half of
Sunday's game against the Dolphins.
His return was officially listed as
questionable.
POSTED 2:35 p.m. EST;
UPDATED 2:39 p.m. EST, November 18, 2007
REPLAY MALFUNCTION IN BALTIMORE
Now we've heard it all.
For the first time (as far as we know) in the
history of the league's replay challenge system, a call has been upheld
because the referee was unable to review the video evidence.
As explained in the NFL.com Game Center, a
completed pass by the Brown was upheld "because
of a system malfunction."
The Ravens challenged the play. They
were not charged a time out due to the apparent equipment failure. FLORIO JR. LEARNS NEW WORDS After the second half kickoff
during the Chiefs-Colts game on Sunday, someone could be heard yelling the
"F" word. It was clear, and it was loud. Fortunately, Florio Jr. wasn't
home to hear it. Instead, he'll be learning that word, and a few more,
as he sits a few rows behind coach Bob Huggins during this afternoon's WVU
basketball game.
POSTED 2:19 p.m. EST,
November 18, 2007
McNABB OUT
Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb is out of
Philly's home game against the 0-9 Dolphins with an apparent ankle injury.
McNabb's return is listed as questionable.
The Dolphins currently lead, 7-3.
Needless to say, if the Fins were to get their first win of the season over
the Eagles, the fine folks in Philly might be a tad disgruntled -- and might
be inclined to express their feelings.
McNabb is getting X-rays on his leg. A.J.
Feely replaced McNabb, and promptly threw an interception.
POSTED 1:35 p.m. EST;
UPDATED 1:38 p.m. EST, November 18, 2007
COLTS HIDING VINATIERI LEG INJURY?
A reader tells us that, after Colts kicker
Adam Vinatieri missed a 49-yard field goal attempt against the Chiefs in the
first quarter of Sunday's game, one of the guys handling the CBS broadcast
(either Gus Johnson or Steve Tasker) said that Vinatieri has an undisclosed
injury to his plant leg.
Assuming that Johnson and Tasker have the
journalistic skills to secure disclosure of undisclosed information
regarding injuries, why doesn't the Vinatieri injury appear on the team's
official injury report?
Surely, no team coached by Tony Dungy would
ever break the rules. If Johnson and/or Tasker are right, it truly
would be a
sad day for the NFL.
UPDATE: Vinatieri missed
another one, and Tasker continues to talk about the injury to Vinatieri's
plant leg. Vinatieri's name appears nowhere on the injury report for
Week Eleven.
POSTED 1:22 p.m. EST,
November 18, 2007
COLTS PLAN TO BRING BACK KLECKO?
There's talk in league circles that the
Indianapolis Colts plan to re-sign defensive lineman Dan Klecko, if he
clears waivers.
In fact, some league insiders believe that the
Colts already have a wink-nod-burp-fart understanding in place with Klecko.
Technically, such deals are against the rules. As a practical matter,
however, the rule is never enforced.
Still, a team hoping to disrupt the Colts'
locker room a bit could put in a claim for Klecko. Waiver claims for
weekend releases are due by Monday at 4:00 p.m.
The Colts cut Klecko on Saturday to make room
for extra help on the offensive line.
POSTED 12:29 p.m. EST; LAST
UPDATED 1:11 p.m. EST, November 18, 2007
LEFTWICH RETURNS TO STARTING LINEUP
Jay Glazer of FOX reports that the Falcons
will turn back to Byron Leftwich at quarterback, over Joey Harrington.
Glazer says that the official line is that
Leftwich throws a better deep ball. Glazer also says that,
unofficially, the reason is that the team has yet to take to Harrington.
In contrast, the Falcons respond to, and will
play hard for, Leftwich.
It's been that way for Harrington in Detroit
and Miami, and it tells us that, eventually, his NFL career will consist of
being a guy who holds the clipboard, and plays only when absolutely
necessary. EMMITT EITHER CAN'T OR
WON'T BE COACHED Several weeks ago, Emmitt
Smith's young broadcasting career hit a low point when he used the term "blowed
out" not once but twice in the same sentence. That statement, and others
like it, has made Emmitt the butt of jokes both inside and outside of
Bristol. The guys on PTI recently used the term "blowed up," as
an apparent homage to Emmitt. Apparently, Emmitt is
oblivious to the criticism. Or no one has bothered to share it with
him. Or there's been no effort at all to get him to do a better job. Because he did it again.
Today. While discussing whether the
Steelers can beat the Patriots, Emmitt said: "This kind of
inconsistency play against a team like New England will get you completely
blowed out." It's sad. It really is.
Because if Emmitt can't or won't accept that the proper term is "blown out,"
imagine how hard it must be to get him to understand slightly more
challenging concepts. UPDATE: An
industry source tells us that ESPN has multiple people working with Emmitt
in an effort to improve his performance. If that's true, a certain
line from a certain classic movie comes to mind.
POSTED 12:19 p.m. EST,
November 18, 2007
PETERSON ON TRACK FOR QUICK RETURN?
Jay Glazer of FOX reports that Vikings running
back Adrian Peterson could indeed be returning quickly from a torn LCL.
Peterson, per Glazer, will run on an
underwater treadmill on Monday, and if all goes well his rehab will
continue.
We're still suspicious, however, of the extent
to which coach Brad Childress is pushing Peterson's return in order to save
his own bacon. And even if Childress isn't the guy making this happen,
Childress will face the wrath of the team's fans, and the media, if
Peterson's knee gets blowed up in the garbage portion of a lost season.
POSTED 12:09 p.m. EST,
November 18, 2007
SMITH INACTIVE FOR WEEK ELEVEN
NFL.com reports that Panthers receiver
Steve Smith is among the inactive players this weekend. Smith
missed practice this week with a shin injury.
Other highlights from the early games include
these: Bengals receiver Chad Johnson (knee) is active and will start;
tight end Bubba Franks in active for the Packers; Jags receiver Matt Jones
is active; Fins linebacker Zach Thomas is inactive; Eagles running back
Brian Westbrook is active and will start; and Chargers defensive lineman
Luis Castillo is inactive.
Also inactive is Jags defensive end Bobby
McCray. Vic Ketchman of Jaguars.com says that "[t]here are alarm bells
attached to the move."
POSTED 11:59 a.m. EST,
November 18, 2007
COLTS TOO CONSERVATIVE WITH INJURIES?
Chris Mortensen of ESPN reports that some
members of the Indianapolis Colts are grousing about the team's
ultra-conservative approach to injuries.
Indy apparently is keeping players like Marvin
Harrison on the shelf under circumstances where, if it were a playoff game,
they would play.
ESPN's Sal Paolantonio says that players are
starting to doubt the team's ability to win in Foxborough without defensive
end Dwight Freeney and, possibly, without Harrison. Paolantonio also
says that coach Tony Dungy has stressed that the Colts need to continue to
focus, despite the injuries.
Frankly, we're not sure that the Colts will
even get another crack at the Patriots. They might have to run the
table in order to nudge out the Steelers for the No. 2 seed in the AFC.
Otherwise, the might have to go to Pittsburgh and win in the elements before
getting another shot at New England.
Tight end Dallas Clark (concussion) will play
on Sunday. Harrison is out, as is left tackle Tony Ugoh.
And as Emmitt Smith said, "All those things
messes with the mentality of the ball club, and the chemistry of your ball
club."
Fortunately, however, it has no real effect on
your golf club.
POSTED 11:45 a.m. EST,
November 18, 2007
JAMARCUS DEBUT COMING DECEMBER 2?
Chris Mortensen of ESPN reports that Raiders
quarterback JaMarcus Russell, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 draft,
could make his pro debut on December 2, against the Broncos.
The move won't happen if current starter
Daunte Culpepper plays "lights out" in the next two games. Assuming
that Culpepper won't be experiencing a change of form from his performances
since the start of the 2005 season, Russell's time is coming.
Mort says that the light came on for Russell a
couple of weeks ago, and that Russell is down to a svelte 259 pounds after
being in the 270s earlier in the year.
Russell has yet to take a snap in the NFL; he
missed all of the preseason in a holdout.
POSTED 11:40 a.m. EST,
November 18, 2007
CONDON INJECTS HIMSELF INTO NOLAN-SMITH
FEUD
Chris Mortensen of ESPN reports that agent Tom
Condon is blaming the 49ers for causing tendinitis in quarterback Alex
Smith's arm as a result of treatment given to Smith by the team for his
separated shoulder.
We realize that it's Condon's job to represent
the interests of Smith, but it would make a lot more sense for Condon to
either deal with these matters privately -- or to pursue the matter through
the union.
Though it's possible that someone from the
49ers leaked Condon's complaint to Mortensen, it's equally likely that
Condon is leaking the information as part of a P.R. attack against the team.
If that's the case, it's unfortunate.
And it's risky. Just ask Scott Boras.
Meanwhile, it's starting to look like Smith
and the 49ers are heading for a divorce.
POSTED 11:29 a.m. EST,
November 18, 2007
DRIVER ON PACKERS' OFFENSE: THERE'S
"NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO STOP US"
Bob Holtzmann of ESPN reports that Packers
receiver Donald Driver has boasted that, as to the team's offense, there's
"nothing you can do to stop us."
That's a bold statement from Driver. But
he's probably right.
Still, not everyone believes in the Packers'
offense. ESPN's Emmitt Smith doesn't have faith in the running game,
led by (as Emmitt called him on Sunday morning) "Brian" Grant.
In Emmitt's mind, Grant apparently doesn't
compare to great running backs of yesteryear like Larry Sanders, John Brown,
and Eric Nicholson.
POSTED 11:22 a.m. EST,
November 18, 2007
NEAL OUT FOR PATS
The New England Patriots downgraded guard
Stephen Neal from
questionable
to out on Saturday night.
Neal, who has a shoulder injury, had been
expected to play.
Also out for the Pats are safety Eugene Wilson
and linebacker Eric Alxander.
New England has a habit of downgrading players
on the night before road games, since at that point it's obvious that the
players in question won't play, given that they didn't make the trip.
Russ Hochstein is expected to place Neal in
the Pats' starting lineup.
POSTED 4:53 p.m. EST,
November 17, 2007
COLTS CHOP KLECKO
Adam Schefter of NFL Network reports that the
Indianapolis Colts have cut defensive lineman Dan Klecko, in order to create
space for offensive lineman Corey Hilliard, whom the Colts signed from their
practice squad.
Klecko, who once played for the Patriots,
caught the game-tying touchdown pass against the Pats in the 2006 AFC
championship game.
The son of former Pro Bowl lineman Joe Klecko,
Dan Klecko will first pass through waivers. If unclaimed, he'll become
an unrestricted free agent.
POSTED 4:37 p.m. EST,
November 17, 2007
WESTBROOK MIGHT NOT GO
Eagles running back Brian Westbrook missed two
days of practice this week with a knee injury, and
might
not play on Sunday against the winless Dolphins.
Westbrook reportedly experienced swelling in
the knee after lifting weights following practice on Wednesday. He
missed practice on Thursday and Friday.
In one of his best seasons, Westbrook has more
than 1,200 yards from scrimmage. He missed one game with an abdominal
injury.
"I think he'll be ready to go," coach Andy
Reid said Friday. "It's not bad. There's a little swelling."
Earlier in the week, Westbrook hinted that
his contract might require an adjustment come 2007. He
inadvertently was paid an extra $3 million in 2006, and has been required to
pay the money back -- and at the same time to attempt to obtain a refund for
the taxes that he previously paid.
POSTED 9:44 p.m. EST; LAST
UPDATED 10:25 a.m. EST, November 17, 2007
HENRY DECISION LOOMING
With a formal appeal hearing before NFL
Commissioner Roger Goodell now in the books, it's time for Broncos running
back Travis Henry to
wait for a ruling as to whether he'll be suspended for a full year, at a
minimum.
The hearing occurred on Friday in Phoenix, and
the team excused Henry from practice so that he could attend.
Henry told the Rocky Mountain News that
he has a "good feeling" about the appeal.
Maybe it was something he smoked.
Seriously, why does Henry think he's going to
prevail? The league's substance-abuse policy is under attack from
Henry in a court of law, and it's under attack from Henry's coach in the
court of public opinion. If Goodell were to find that Henry should not
be suspended for a year, Goodell would essentially be admitting that the
drug-testing policy is flawed -- opening the door for every other player who
tests positive to launch a similar challenge against it.
One of Henry's arguments apparently is that
the threshold for marijuana is too low, potentially resulting in a positive
after merely being exposed to second-hand smoke. But what in the hell
was a guy who is one strike away from a one-year suspension doing hanging
out with someone who was smoking pot?
Besides, the threshold was accepted and agreed
to by the union. If Henry doesn't like the fact that the union has put
him in a bad position, Henry should take it up with Congress.
And we can only wonder how hard the NFL
smacked the knuckles of Coach Kevlar behind the scenes for his recent
proclamation that Henry passed a lie-detector test and a hair-sample test.
There's no way that the league would air that laundry publicly, since to do
so would be to embarrass owner Pat Bowlen. Still, we strongly suspect
that Coach Shenanigan got dressed down over the fact that
his effort to curry
favor with his players put his ultimate employer in a very bad light. ALEXANDER OUT FOR SUNDAY Seahawks running back
Shaun
Alexander will miss another game, due to a knee injury he suffered two
weeks ago against the Browns. "I told Shaun, until he can
practice the whole week, then I'm not going to put him in the field,"
Holmgren said recently. "I tried to explain, with
running backs, that you need to be able to do what you do, and if you're
worried about an injury or something's sore . . . you really are open to
more injuries. So I'm not going to put him on the field until he can
do what he does." Holmgren's comments could be
interpreted as an implicit slap at Alexander due to the perception that,
before suffering the knee injury, he was playing too tentatively, possibly
setting the stage for the knee to be sprained. The deeper question, as we see
it, is that Alexander could be sealing his fate in Seattle. He scored
a big-money contract in early 2006. Though he was poised to hit free
agency during a 2005 season for the ages, the team resisted signing him to a
long-term deal because the organization feared that, once the fire was
quenched, it would be extinguished. But after leading the team to
the Super Bowl and securing the MVP award and the single-season touchdown
record (which stood for all of a year), the team had no choice but to
embrace Alexander for the long haul. Now that the locals are booing
him openly, it'll be far easier for the team to pull the plug. And we
have a feeling that, unless he takes a steep pay cut, 2007 will be his last
year in cobalt blue and fluorescent vomit green. MORE ON DIXON INJURY In response to our item
regarding the dangers posed by allowing NFL and college coaches to be less
than truthful about a player's injury status, a tipster tells us that at
least one member of the Oregon athletics department was privately saying
that Dixon spent a lot of time with the trainers in the days leading to
Thursday night's game against Arizona, even as coach Mike Bellotti was
putting out false information about the status of Dixon, who tore an ACL on
November 3 against Arizona State. Sure enough, the
betting line was moving toward Arizona, even as more and more folks were
taking Oregon. Clearly, the boys in Vegas
knew that Dixon wasn't as healthy as advertised, and they enticed more money
to be bet on Oregon by reducing the point spread. Meanwhile, the rest of us had
to rely upon the official information being provided by the team. "It
was just a mild knee strain, and he had a thigh bruise on that same leg
from earlier in the game," Bellotti said after Dixon initially suffered the
injury. "I think he could have gone back in, but we are comfortable
with our depth at that position. He would have gone back in if we felt
he was needed." Then, after Dixon declared
himself "totally 100 percent" after a week of practice, Bellotti said this:
"I watched him run around on Friday [November 9] and was really, really
extremely pleased. He did a lot of change-of-direction stuff, a lot of
stop-start stuff and took part in some drills. That's very exciting,
and obviously very positive for all of us." So what's Bellotti's excuse
for not being honest? "[Dixon]
asked us on behalf of himself and his family to keep that quiet." Yeah, because Dixon and his
family wanted to be able to bet the farm on Arizona. (Okay, we're
kidding. But that's exactly the kind of thing that could happen in
situations like this.) Bellotti also has attempted to
pre-empt any criticism of his decision to allow Dixon to play with a torn
ACL by suggesting that Dixon was trying to put his teammates' interests
ahead of his own. "While he certainly had some personal goals at
stake, anyone who is familiar with Dennis knows that any decisions he made
were purely in the interest of his teammates and not motivated by any
personal gains." Look, the player is always
going to want to keep playing. And the player isn't going to consider
the long-term consequences of, for example, delaying reconstructive ACL
surgery for two full months. It's the coach's job to think broadly,
and to help steer the kid in the right direction. But because Bellotti
knew that he had no chance of winning a national championship without Dixon,
Bellotti opted to let the kid keep playing. Fortunately for Dixon, the
knee crumbled without contact in the first game after the injury. So
now he's only two weeks behind where he would have been if the injury had
been disclosed at the appropriate time. Besides, the broader point
here is that the NCAA needs to take meaningful steps toward preventing the
concealment of injuries, because it will serve only to invite gamblers and
other shady characters to cozy up to guys who are playing football for free.
If in light of the Dixon situation anyone doesn't think it's happening, then
they're just plain naive.
POSTED 9:00 p.m. EST,
November 16, 2007
INJURY SECRECY INVITES TROUBLE
Though this site is focused exclusively on pro
football, there are at times stories relating to other levels of the game
that illustrate one of the points on which we harp from time to time.
And as anyone who comes to this site knows, we
often get queasy about the misinformation that NFL teams propagate regarding
their injured players. Not because we want to see the rules followed
(though we do) but because we recognize that gamblers and organized
criminals are smart enough to see that the injury reports don't tell the
whole story, and that there might be folks on a team's payroll who know some
of the things that haven't been disclosed.
But it's not just the guy who washes the jock
straps for $9.15 an hour who might be willing to share what he has heard in
exchange for an envelope containing multiple portraits of former presidents.
It's family members and friends of players, who might see no harm in picking
up some lunch money in exchange for passing along to the guy from the health
club with one eyebrow the things that the player said about his ankle when
he called after practice last night.
We mention this because there's a stunning
report regarding Oregon quarterback Dennis Dixon, who apparently suffered a
serious knee injury on Thursday night. Video of the incident suggested
that he tore an ACL.
As it turns out, he didn't tear an ACL.
No, the ACL
was already torn.
Dixon suffered the injury on November 3.
But coach Mike Bellotti said that Dixon had rested the injury and was ready
to play.
On November 5, offensive coordinator Chip
Kelly said that Dixon wasn't seriously hurt.
"I just saw him out in the hallway and he was
doing jumping jacks," Kelly said. "He
has been working with our trainers and he'll be fine."
Yeah, he'll be fine. With no ACL.
And so much for Bellotti helping Dixon
position himself to be ready for his rookie NFL season. But why would
an NCAA head coach care about one of his player's future career when the
National Championship is within reach -- if only the kid's ACL-less knee
doesn't buckle without contact on a choppy grass field?
As it now stands, Dixon is done for the year,
and his stock come April 2008 has plummeted. More importantly, that
guy from the health club with one eyebrow is eating caviar and drinking
champagne from a bottle without a screw top because he was able to find out
the true extent of Dixon's injury, and to act accordingly.
POSTED 8:34 p.m. EST,
November 16, 2007
GRUMPY OLD MEN AT LAMBEAU
When 38-year-old Brett Favre looks across the
field at the guy who'll be starting at quarterback for the Panthers, he'll
feel young. For a change.
Because starting for the Panthers
will be 44-year-old Vinny Testaverde.
Vinny gets the nod over a healthy David Carr,
who has been a huge disappointment in his first season in Carolina.
Coach John Fox says that the quarterback job will be determined on a
week-by-week basis.
For the Panthers, the time to win some games
is at hand. If this team doesn't make the playoffs, coach John Fox and
G.M. Marty Hurney could be looking for work. Involuntarily.
POSTED 8:25 p.m. EST,
November 16, 2007
GREEN OUT AGAIN
On the day that the Texans will welcome to
Houston the running back over whom they passed at the top of the 2006 draft,
the team won't have their big-money free-agent tailback . . . again.
Ahman Green
will miss another game due to a knee problem. "He has not
responded here over the course of the last couple of weeks in the rest we
have given him," coach Gary Kubiak said Friday. "He came out, did a
little bit yesterday. It did not respond. The knee swelled this
morning, so he will be down and we'll work from there."
Green, a long-time Packer who got his start in
Seattle, has rushed for only 260 yards on 70 carries this season for
Houston.
Ron Dayne, the 1999 Heisman Trophy winner,
will start in Green's place.
POSTED 8:10 p.m. EST,
November 16, 2007
HORSE COLLAR FUND KEEPS GROWING
Week Ten brought a couple new fines for
violation of the rule against so-called horse collar tackles.
According to Adam Schefter of NFL Network,
Cards safety Adrian Wilson was slapped with a $10,000 fine for pulling the
horse collar maneuver. Ditto for Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman,
who will have $7,500 less to purchase non-tainted supplements as a result of
slapping a horse collar on a Colt.
The fact that the horse collar play continues
to occur despite the fines tells us that the fines aren't working. At
some point, the league needs to start suspending players.
POSTED 2:52 p.m. EST;
UPDATED, 3:16 p.m. EST,
November 16, 2007
NOT SO FREAKY ANYMORE
Eight years ago (has it been that long?),
defensive end Jevon Kearse exploded onto the NFL scene as a stud rookie with
the Titans.
"The Freak" took the league by storm, but
injuries soon limited his playing time.
When he qualified for free agency, he bolted
for the Eagles. He played well at first, but a serious knee injury
ended his season prematurely in 2006. This year, Kearse is plagued by
ineffectiveness.
How bad has he been? Bad enough to get
benched.
Per the Philadelphia Inquirer, poor
play in a Sunday night game against the Cowboys nearly two weeks ago caused
the team to reduce Kearse' role. On Sunday against the Dolphins,
Kearse might not play at all.
"I haven't decided that yet," defensive
coordinator Jim Johnson said when asked about Kearse's role for Sunday.
Taking Kearse's place at the left defensive
end position will be Juqua Thomas.
Thomas and Trent Cole have eclipsed Kearse and
Howard, both of whom were big-money free-agent additions of the Eagles.
As to Kearse, one league source told us on
Friday that he "might be the biggest bust of all time in free agency."
But teammates are defending Kearse, who still
is recovering from that knee injury. "No one wants to talk about Jevon
being on the football field playing one of the toughest positions [coming]
off knee surgery," cornerback Sheldon Brown said. "No one wants to
talk about that. They want to talk about his money. He's
undersized, so he needs to be 110 percent."
Cornerback Lito Sheppard knows that the salary
of Kearse and Howard, coupled with their positions on the depth chart, will
lead to a parting of the ways after the season.
"When you talk about that stuff, you're
talking about money," Sheppard said. "The only thing Jevon could have
done to stay here is make the Pro Bowl. He'll get straight once he
gets healthy. They're both going to go somewhere else and sign and
play well next year." EMMITT TO GET EVEN MORE
EXPOSURE? Liz Mullen of Sports
Business Journal reports that Emmitt Smith and his wife have signed with
IMG for representation "individually and as a pair." Smith is the NFL's all-time
leading rusher, but (in our view) he also is the all-time worst
athlete-turned-high-profile-broadcaster. We're not sure what "Mr. and
Mrs. Smith" plan to do together, but we hope that it has less and less to do
with football and the discussion thereof. And since Emmitt apparently
thinks he's actually good on television, he might be under the impression
that he can become, say, an actor. The Smiths apparently hope to
capitalize on Emmitt's victory in Dancing with the Stars.
Emmitt already has parlayed that success into a role as pitchman for the
Arthur Murray Dance Studios. But how long can the fading
fumes of a victory in a popular series that continues to crank out new
winners last? Emmitt needs to find another way to make a name for
himself, or the star will quickly fade. NO. 2 SEED FOR STEELERS? Don't look now, but the
Pittsburgh Steelers could disrupt the plans for a Pats-Colts reunion in
January. With the Steelers going strong
and the Colts stumbling, the road to Foxborough could end up going through
Pittsburgh. For more on this possibility,
have a listen to the PFT guys.
YOUNG'S CAREER STUCK IN
NEUTRAL Some Internet hack from a
disreputable web site has made a halfway-decent argument on SportingNews.com
regarding the development of Titans quarterback Vince Young. You can read what said
Internet hack has to say on the matter
right
here.
POSTED 1:32 p.m. EST, November 16, 2007
BILLICK NONCOMMITTAL ABOUT QUARTERBACKS'
FUTURE by Michael David Smith
Ravens coach Brian Billick has said that Steve
McNair's shoulder injury is the reason the team is turning to Kyle Boller as
its starting quarterback.
But when asked if Boller could keep the job
even once McNair has made a complete recovery, Billick said it could happen.
"Sure,
that's always a possibility," Billick said, per Jamison Hensley of the
Baltimore Sun. "It has to do with Steve's strength, as well, and how
we're doing as a team."
If Boller plays well enough that Billick
decides to keep him in the lineup even after McNair is healthy enough to
play, it would signal the end of McNair's tenure in Baltimore, and maybe the
end of his career.
As for McNair's long-term future in Baltimore,
Billick said, "That's a question that I really can't answer. Only time will
tell that. My admiration for Steve McNair -- the champion he's been, the
grit, the toughness, the professionalism -- is something that I will
continue to value. I don't know that anybody can answer that question right
now."
Hensley reports that the Ravens would take a
$3.35 million salary cap hit in 2008 if they released McNair after the
season. McNair signed a five-year, $32 million deal in June of 2006, after
trading a fourth-round draft pick to pry him loose from the Titans.
POSTED 12:17 p.m. EST, November 16, 2007
L.J. SAYS HE'LL PLAY THIS YEAR
by Michael David Smith
Chiefs running back Larry Johnson is saying
publicly that he will return this season, contradicting reports that a foot
injury will end his season.
"I'm
able to walk fine without using a boot," Johnson said Thursday night on
the weekly radio show hosted by Chiefs president Carl Peterson.
Although Adam Teicher of the Kansas City
Star reports that Johnson still won't give details about the exact
nature of his injury, Peterson suggested that Johnson has made faster
progress in rehabilitation than the team expected.
"This guy has made unbelievable progress,"
Peterson said. "It was a significant injury."
Johnson did not play last weekend against the
Broncos and has been ruled out of this weekend's game against the Colts, but
the fact that he has not been put on injured reserve indicates that the
Chiefs -- who at 4-5 are only a game out in the AFC West -- still think he
can play this season.
Fox 31 in Denver reported shortly after
Johnson injured his foot in a loss to the Packers that
he was out for the season. Other media reports have given conflicting
accounts of the seriousness of the injury.
POSTED 8:55 a.m. EST; LAST
UPDATED 10:59 a.m. EST, November 16, 2007
BRANION SUSPENSION REVERSED
Liz Mullen of Sports Business Journal
reports that arbitrator Roger Kaplan has scuttled a one-year suspension
imposed by the NFLPA upon agent Joby Branion of Athletes First.
Kaplan upheld a one-year suspension leveled
against agent Zeke Sandhu.
The case arose from the alleged efforts of
Sandhu to leave the firm of Lock, Metz, and Malinovic and to take with him
49ers tight end Vernon Davis. Branion became caught up in the
situation because Sandhu tried to get hired by Athletes First.
Earlier this year, Branion told us that he
initiated no contact of any kind with Davis.
"There is no question that in this case there
was interference," NFLPA General Counsel Richard Berthelsen told Mullen.
"The only issue was whether it was by both Sandhu and Branion or only by
Sandhu. The disciplinary committee thought it was both. Kaplan
disagreed and said it was only Sandhu and his decision is final."
Another issue in this case is that Sandhu's
name was on the Davis representation agreement. Typically,
"interferences" arises in violation of NFLPA rules when an agent who is not
on the SRA tries to pilfer a client who is represented by someone else.
It's believed in some circles that the NFLPA
targeted Branion in part because of the NFLPA's history of battles with
Branion's partner, David Dunn. The ice in that regard should be
thawing considerably, given that Andrew Kessler, the son of NFLPA primary
outside counsel Jeff Kessler, now works for Athletes First. THREE NEW SPRINT PHONES
COMING NEXT FRIDAY Okay, why go out and fight the
crowds at the strip mall on the day after Thanksgiving when you can do your
Holiday shopping by following the ads on this page? Everyone has a cell phone, and
everyone is almost always looking to upgrade to a new handset. Come
November 23, Sprint and Nextel will offer up three of them. As of Friday, the RIM
Blackberry Pearl 8130, the Motorola Q9c, and the Motorola i335 will be
available, exclusively from Sprint. All are priced under $200,
with service plan and rebates. The i335 is a Nextel product that can
be had for $50. The Motorola Q9c is an upgrade
of the Q, and it has all sorts of new features. The RIM Blackberry
Pearl 8130 incorporates more of the now-standard Sprint services into the
Blackberry product, such as Sprint TV. It's also the first RIM product
that has a built-in video recorder. We're hearing from more and
more PFT readers who have made the switch to Sprint, and who love it.
So join the rest of PFT Planet this holiday season and become a Sprint
customer. If you already are a Sprint customer, look into getting one
of the new handsets. Sprint Nextel, by the way, is
the official telecommunications partner of ProFootballTalk. FRIDAY MORNING
ONE-PER-CLUB ONE-LINERS
by Michael David Smith Patriots RB Laurence Maroney
wishes his old teammate Corey Dillon
would re-join the Patriots. Bills QB Gibran Hamdan is
pretending to be Tom Brady as he
runs the scout team offense. [Editor's note:
So far, Hamdan has gotten three women pregnant. And a goat.]
The Jets
have to get better in the fourth quarter Dolphins LB Zach Thomas
doesn't expect to play Sunday against the Eagles. Says Steelers offensive
coordinator Bruce Arians of QB Ben Roethlisberger's performance against the
Browns, "I think he might have
had one bad read in that whole ball game." Browns WR Braylon Edwards
isn't convinced
that the Ravens can shut down Cleveland's offense the way Pittsburgh did in
the second half of Sunday's game. The Ravens have
improved their running game, but they spent a lot to do it. Bengals return man Antonio
Chatman says of getting the punt return job back, "I
love it. It's like losing a dog and you can't find it for a couple
of weeks." With Dwight Freeney out for
the season, Colts DT Raheem Brock might
move back to defensive end. When asked if rookie WR John
Broussard had moved ahead of Matt Jones on the depth chart, Jaguars coach
Jack Del Rio said, "I
don't get into discussions like that." Titans CB Reynaldo Hill might
move back into the starting lineup in place of the injured Nick Harper.
An unnamed former pro
personnel director was asked whether the Texans should have drafted DE Mario
Williams or RB Reggie Bush last year and answered, "I'd say they would be
better off
without either one of them." Despite having 5.5 sacks in
nine games a year after having 17 sacks in 12 games, Chargers LB Shawne
Merriman says, "I think
I'm having my best season." Says Chiefs coach Herm Edwards
of QB Damon Huard going from first team to scout team, "He's
a pro. He knows his job is to help the team." Broncos S Hamza Abdullah is
getting praise from
his teammates and coaches. Raiders P Shane Lechler says
the key to his improvement this season is that the team fired
last year's
special teams coach. Says Cowboys coach Wade
Phillips of forcing his players to sign a pledge that they wouldn't get any
personal foul penalties, "It may be silly.
I was serious
about it." Giants LB Antonio Pierce plans
to play Sunday, a week after
suffering his first concussion. Eagles LB Takeo Spikes says he
likes being in Philadelphia because when he played in Cincinnati he shared a
locker room with "a
lot of guys who didn't care." Says Redskins defensive
coordinator Gregg Williams of CB Shawn Springs, "I
think his leadership has been outstanding." Packers coach Mike McCarthy
will talk about a contract extension
after the
season. Says Lions offensive
coordinator Mike Martz, "[W]e certainly have to
get the running game going again." Says Bears third-string QB
Kyle Orton of his status with the team, "It's
not an easy situation to be in." Vikings RB Adrian Peterson has
donated the uniform
he wore in his record-setting performance against the Chargers to the
Pro Football Hall of Fame. Says Buccaneers coach Jon
Gruden of the report that a personal trainer distributed steroids to C Matt
Lehr, "I got nothing to say other than he's here, he's been stellar for us
and
I really like Matt." Saints LT Jammal Brown
missed practice for the second consecutive day with a calf injury, but
coach Sean Payton is optimistic that he'll play. Panthers WR Steve Smith has
missed two
straight practices with a shin injury. Falcons coach Bobby Petrino
says he told QB Joey Harrington to
prepare like he was going to start, even though he told the media that
Harrington wasn't going to start unless Byron Leftwich's ankle injury kept
him out. Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren
says CB Marcus Trufant is "having
a fine year." Cardinals RB J.J. Arrington is
getting the ball more on third down. 49ers WR Ashley Lelie suffered
a right
quadriceps strain in Wednesday's practice and will miss Sunday's game
against the Rams. Says Rams DE Eric Moore of
being promoted to the 53-man roster, "I'm excited; it's
a lot better than the practice squad."
POSTED 11:59 p.m. EST,
November 15. 2007
VICK'S HOUSE WILL BE AUCTIONED
The house and the property that housed the Bad
Newz Kennels will be auctioned on December 15, five days after its former
owner is sentenced on federal conspiracy charges relating to dog fighting.
The deed was filed on Thursday selling the
house to Todd Builders, Inc., which will offer the land up for action next
month.
The property was sold for $450,000; it had an
assessed value of $750,000.
"Only
one person can own the most famous house in America today," said real
estate agent Kyle Hause, Jr. "You can ask people from coast to coast
which house has the most notoriety in the country today, and it's this
house."
Prior reports indicated that "heads would
turn" when the buyer of the property was disclosed. As we understand
it, the initial buyer backed off of the transaction for that very reason.
POSTED 11:41 p.m. EST,
November 15, 2007
BROWNS COULD FRANCHISE ANDERSON
Though we've previously advised a few readers
-- and a radio audience or two -- that the Browns can't use the franchise
tag on quarterback Derek Anderson, they apparently can.
Per Adam Schefter of NFL Network, the Browns
would be able to use the franchise tag on Anderson, even though Anderson
will be a restricted free agent.
Under the CBA, the maximum limitation under
the restricted free agency rules is one-year tender that gives the team a
right of first refusal and compensation, if the offer is not matched, in the
amount of a first-round pick and a third-round pick.
For 2008, the price of the highest possible
restricted free agency tag will be $2.562 million.
But, if the team so chooses, its franchise tag
can be used on a restricted free agent, bumping the compensation to two
first-round draft picks. The financial difference, however, is
enormous; the one-year franchise tender for a quarterback will be roughly
$10.6 million in 2008.
So for $8 million extra dollars, the Browns
upgrade the compensation from a first-round pick and a third-round pick to
two first-round picks. The bigger issue, however, is that the
two-round difference in the second draft pick might be enough to scare away
a potential suitor.
We assume that the Browns also could chose to
use the "exclusive" franchise tender, which would prevent Anderson from
negotiating with other teams -- but which would move the compensation to
roughly $14 million for 2008.
Schefter says that the Niners used the
franchise tender on receiver Terrell Owens in 1999, even though he was a
restricted free agent. He later signed a seven-year, $34 million
contract with a $7.5 million signing bonus.
POSTED 6:53 p.m. EST,
November 15, 2007
FAVRE LEADS PRO BOWL VOTING
With four weeks to go before voting closes on
the 2007 Pro Bowl, Packers quarterback Brett Favre is leading the way with
458,837 votes.
It's a testament to the stunning rebirth Favre
has experienced in 2007, his best season in years.
In second place is Colts quarterback Peyton
Manning, with 441,852. Pats quarterback Tom Brady is in third, with
440,354.
The leading non-quarterback is Patriots
receiver Randy Moss, with 342,250.
Here are the leading AFC vote-getters at each
position:
Peyton Manning,
Colts
441,852
Dwight Freeney,
Colts
209,272
Joseph Addai,
Colts
297,504
Vince Wilfork,
Patriots
100,032
Lorenzo Neal,
Chargers
194,880
Shawne Merriman,
Chargers
148,287
Randy Moss,
Patriots
342,250
Tedy Bruschi,
Patriots
121,099
Antonio Gates,
Chargers
199,593
Champ Bailey,
Broncos
183,109
Matt Light,
Patriots
179,054
Troy Polamalu,
Steelers
134,868
Eric Steinbach,
Browns
188,052
Ed Reed, Ravens
110, 412
Jeff Saturday,
Colts
168,502
Chris Hanson,
Patriots
52,131
Adam Vinatieri,
Colts
82,922
Larry Izzo,
Patriots
105,147
Wes Welker,
Patriots
69,590
And now the NFC:
Brett Favre,
Packers
458,837
DE
Osi Umenyiora,
Giants
166,529
Adrian
Peterson, Vikings
317,388
IL
Tommie Harris,
Bears
96,227
Tony
Richardson, Vikings
79,499
OLB
DeMarcus Ware,
Cowboys
151,589
Terrell Owens,
Cowboys
255,490
ILB
Nick Barnett,
Packers
96,140
Jason Witten,
Cowboys
238,598
CB
Charles
Woodson, Packers
137,925
Flozell Adams,
Cowboys
138,986
SS
Roy Williams,
Cowboys
108,450
Leonard Davis,
Cowboys
124,316
FS
Sean Taylor,
Redskins
93,639
Andre Gurode,
Cowboys
121,462
P
Mat McBriar,
Cowboys
85,609
Nick Folk,
Cowboys
107,372
ST
Keith Davis,
Cowboys
70,490
Devin Hester,
Bears
249,212
The Pro Bowl teams are determined by a
combination of fan voting, coach voting, and player voting. Each
segment counts a third toward the final tally.
Votes can be cast on NFL.com and on Sprint
phones by texting "PRO" to 7777. Fans who vote are eligible for a
five-day, four-night trip to the Pro Bowl in Hawaii. Cowboys
quarterback Tony Romo is the leading vote-getter through the Sprint
balloting.
POSTED 5:12 p.m. EST,
November 15, 2007
RICKY RETURNS ON MONDAY
Eighteen months after being suspended and more
than three years after retiring for a full season, running back Ricky
Williams has returned yet again to the Miami Dolphins.
Williams
will return to the practice field on Monday, and hopes to play on
November 26, against the Steelers. ''My motivation is to get my
life going again,'' he said, according to the Miami Herald. "I
want to get my life going. And I want to create a better life for
myself and for my family. Being a football player for me is a big part
of that.'" Coach Cam Cameron made the
decision to allow Williams back onto the team after meeting with him on
Thursday. ''I hated being a football
player before,'' Williams said. "Someone asked me a question.
They said, 'Do you like playing football?' I thought about it and I
thought about it and I thought about it. And the next day, I was doing
this exercise and I was writing down my ideal paradise moment. And
when I really thought about it, it was playing football. "I realized that I love to
play football and I love to be on the field. But I hated being a
football player.'' He might have hated being a
football player because, at the NFL level, being a football player means
periodically peeing into a cup and then having the liquid tested for the
presence of the kinds of substances that Ricky might use to unwind on a day
off from his ideal paradise moment. Moving forward, the challenge,
is whether he can avoid the things that turned his football career into a
paradise lost.
POSTED 4:58 p.m. EST,
November 15, 2007
"HERE'S DR. JOHNNY"
A league source has forwarded to us an e-mail
message that casts some doubt on the motives of Dr. Johnny Benjamin, who
recently has been quoted in the media regarding injured NFL players,
including Vikings running back
Adrian Peterson
and Jets linebacker
Jonathan Vilma.
On Monday morning, before there was even a
diagnosis on the condition of a knee Peterson injured on Sunday, a P.R. firm
was pimping Dr. Johnny as someone who could offer commentary on the
situation.
"Vikings fans, fantasy team owners with
Peterson on their team, and fans of the NFL in general are wondering what to
make of the situation," the e-mail said. "Will he back this season? If so,
when? Why on earth would he lobby his coach to return to the game?
How will team medics and the league treat him if the injury is more serious
than first analyzed?
So Dr. Johnny has an agenda. The agenda,
we believe, is to get his name in the paper and elsewhere, presumably in an
effort to become the next Dr. James Andrews -- or the knees, backs, and
necks equivalent of Dr. Phil.
And so Dr. Johnny will take contrarian
viewpoints in an effort to foment controversy, even without having any
first-hand knowledge about the patient's medical condition.
We're not saying that we don't like contrarian
viewpoints, especially when it comes to the medical treatment that players
get from their teams. But such viewpoints tend to carry more weight
when coming from someone other than a guy who apparently is embracing the
contrarian platform so that he can become more "nationally renowned."
So it's no surprise that Dr. Johnny's opinions
ended up in print on Tuesday, given that the e-mail invited writers to "[s]peak
with Dr. Benjamin today about Adrian Peterson's injury and what fans can
expect for the star running back, as well as other issues presented with
athletes who depend on getting back on the field no matter what the cost."
POSTED 3:00 p.m. EST,
November 15, 2007
FINS CLAIM THEY'RE NONCOMMITTAL ON RICKY
Though we've heard that the Miami Dolphins
intend to allow running back Ricky Williams to rejoin the team, the official
position continues to be no position.
Williams
visited the team on Thursday, and watched practice while eating an
apple. (Insert munchies joke here.)
"I want to see where he is, and also let him
know where we're headed, and we'll go from there," coach Cam Cameron said.
Where they're headed is potentially to 0-16,
especially with a rookie taking over at quarterback. So having a guy
like Williams back on the team can't hurt.
"I don't care who you got . . . if you
could run the ball like Ricky did," linebacker Joey Porter said. "I
mean, right now I'd do anything for a victory." (If that "anything"
includes shutting up forever, we'd be inclined to see if we can persuade the
Eagles to lay down on Sunday.)
And even if the team doesn't view Ricky as a
long-term contributor, letting him show what he can do can't hurt. If
nothing else, he'll be able to generate some film over the last few weeks of
the season, which then could be used by another team to justify trading for
him.
Until then, Williams is reunited with the guy
who traded him to Miami in the first place -- G.M. Randy Mueller. It
was Mueller and coach Jim Haslett who opted for Deuce McAllister over Ricky
in 2002, sending the 1998 Heisman winner to the Dolphins.
POSTED 12:21 p.m. EST,
November 15, 2007
CURTIS CONTINUES TO BE COY ABOUT OWNERSHIP
For the past several months, former NFL
running back Curtis Martin has been hinting that he'll soon be involved in
the ownership of an NFL team.
But Martin consistently refuses to identify
the team, and all this coyness is starting to make us not care.
And now it's becoming a game of sorts for
Martin. He recently disclosed that, every couple weeks,
he travels
from New York to Dallas to Miami to Atlanta in connection with his
project.
"I won't say anything else," Martin said.
"When it does happen and when everything plays out, I'll be very detailed
and we can probably go through the entire process. But to protect
those who are involved and the integrity of the whole deal, I'm not going to
say too much about it."
Why the secrecy? And if it's so secret,
why in the hell are you talking about it at all?
It's not like Martin will be buying a team.
We know just enough about NFL ownership rules to know that a guy (or gal)
who wants to become the principal owner of a team has to come to the table
with a big chunk of the purchase price in his (or her) own change purse.
Martin has done well for himself as a pro athlete, but not so well that he
could be the front man for a transaction of that magnitude.
Moreover, if an NFL team was for sale, it
wouldn't be offered quietly to a former player. It would be put on the
market with an opening bid of $1 billion.
So someone is apparently slicing a small piece
of the pie to Martin. If it happens, good for him. But we don't
think it merits a deliberate effort to build buzz.
Then again, there's now another story about
the situation on this site, so maybe his plan is working.
POSTED 9:41 a.m. EST; LAST
UPDATED 10:31 a.m. EST, November 15, 2007
POLIAN FORCES MASCOT RULE CHANGE
As Colts G.M. Bill Polian continues to escape
scrutiny from the league regarding his thinly-veiled criticisms of game
officials, Polian also has the juice to compel changes to league rules.
As recently reported by Vic Ketchman of
Jaguars.com (which Polian might now call a "disreputable web site"), Polian
complained to the league office regarding the antics of the Jags' mascot.
And Polian's complaint prompted the league to restrict the space in which
mascots can operate.
Here's the relevant Q&A from Ketchman's
November 14 item:
Brad from Harrisonburg, VA:
An NFL.com article stated: "Because of the antics of Jaguars mascot Jaxson
de Ville, a rule was instituted that all NFL mascots must stay behind the
six-foot white border around the field at all times during games."
What incident is this alluding to?
Vic: Jaxson spent a little
too much time on the field for Colts President Bill Polian's tastes during
the Monday night game on Oct. 22. Polian filed a complaint with the
league.
Though this new provision has zero relevance
to the game, it's further evidence of the uncanny influence that Polian has
over the league office. League insiders continue to be perplexed by
it. In our view, it could be that Polian is so relentless about his
complaints that folks are more inclined to let him have his way than to be
badgered by Polian or one of his charges.
Meanwhile, Polian's most recent Q&A on the
Colts.com web site
contains a couple of comments for which other coaches or G.M. would
likely be fined.
As to the reversal of the ball spot that would
have given the Colts a key first down late in Sunday's loss to the Chargers,
Polian said this:
"We had assumed that [running back] Joseph Addai made the first down.
So did everybody in America. Unfortunately, one guy in the building
didn’t and guessed at it and it changed. . . . In our view, we
executed. The replay official didn't think we did. We'll discuss
that with the league office at the appropriate time. That's all that
needs to be said about that, because they really don’t deserve much more
mention than that."
What? Yeah, the
replay official noticed that the spot on the field was too generous.
And he was right!
After the replay guy
activated the joy buzzer in the ref's pocket, the ref determined by watching
multiple angles that there was indisputable visual evidence
supporting a reversal of the call on the field.
So the call was right;
"everybody in America" was wrong. And Polian is wrong to be saying
things like that to denigrate the officials.
But Polian wasn't
finished. Asked about the inadvertent whistle that killed a play after
an interception by the Colts in the end zone, Polian said, "The last time I
saw [an inadvertent whistle] was in Pop Warner and that's where it belongs."
If that's not criticism
of the officials, then maybe we need to buy a different dictionary. THURSDAY MORNING
ONE-PER-CLUB ONE-LINERS
by Michael David Smith Patriots RB Kevin Faulk is
hearing praise for his blocking. The Bills will be counting on
CB Jerametrius Butler to
play
the nickel and cover Patriots WR Wes Welker Sunday. Former Jets RB Curtis Martin
has confidence in Jets coach Eric Mangini. Says Dolphins QB Cleo Lemon of
getting benched, "The most important factor is
we didn't win any games." Steelers LBs Larry Foote and
James Farrior were
worried they'd
be benched if new coach Mike Tomlin had switched from a 3-4 defense to a
4-3. Browns RB Jamal Lewis says he
doesn't bother responding to people who say he's past his prime because "[m]y
coaches are happy with what I'm doing." Ravens CB Chris McAlister is
optimistic that he'll play Sunday against the Browns. Bengals RT Willie Anderson
will
miss Sunday's game against the Cardinals. Colts DE Josh Thomas is
expected to
start at right end Sunday in place of Dwight Freeney. Former Jaguars OT Tony Boselli
is
in the middle of a dispute within the Jacksonville City Council.
Titans DT Albert Haynesworth
missed practice yesterday with a hamstring injury, and doesn't expect to
practice today. Texans coach Gary Kubiak says
he expects to keep
five receivers on the active roster for the rest of the season.
Chargers RB LaDainian
Tomlinson is
91 yards away from 10,000 for his career. Broncos WR Javon Walker is
expected to miss at least
one more game. Chiefs LT Damion McIntosh was
limited in practice Wednesday but is
expected
to play Sunday against the Colts. The Raiders may decide to hang
onto QB Andrew Walter because he's signed through 2009 and is a
cheap insurance policy. At halftime of Sunday's win
over the Giants, a Cowboys official was heard saying in the press box of the
team's penalties, "This
crap has got to stop. It's been hurting us all year." Giants S Michael Johnson knows
he needs to play better against the Lions than he did against the
Cowboys. Redskins WR Brandon Lloyd is
likely out for the season with a broken collarbone. Eagles RB Brian Westbrook is
averaging 152 scrimmage yards per game. Packers QB Brett Favre has a
rare opportunity
to be the
younger quarterback in the game Sunday. Says Lions WR Roy Williams of
the loss to the Cardinals, "To be honest,
I don't know what the game plan was." The shoulder injury suffered
by Bears QB Brian Griese Sunday came when RB Cedric Benson
didn't block a
blitzing linebacker. Says Vikings CB Antoine
Winfield, "Without a doubt,
I'm playing Sunday." Buccaneers QB Jeff Garcia
disputes reports that his throwing shoulder is hurting. Panthers S Quinton Teal said
he didn't expect to play at free safety Sunday, "But all of the sudden it
was, 'Teal, you're in,' and
I was like,
'huh'?" Saints LT Jammal Brown and DT
Brian Young were the only players to
miss practice
Wednesday. Falcons coach Bobby Petrino
decided to
tell the media more about his quarterback depth chart than he told his
quarterback. The Seahawks expect to have
their
complete receiving corps together Sunday for the first time since the
first quarter of Week One. Injuries are leaving the
Cardinals
thin at safety for Sunday's game. Services for former 49ers
coach Dick Nolan will be Saturday in Texas; his son and current 49ers coach
Mike Nolan will
miss only a brief walk-through practice Saturday. The Rams have placed G Richie
Incognito
on injured reserve.
POSTED 9:07 a.m. EST,
November 15, 2007
GOLIC EXPLAINS HIS STEROID USE
Former NFL lineman Mike Golic has addressed in
further detail on his ESPN Radio show his use of steroids in 1987.
He says that he used them for 4-6 weeks in the
offseason, after shoulder surgery.
"It was wrong, it was illegal. I did it
illegally. . . . I worked out in a gym and you could get them anywhere
you wanted at that point. And I did. And it was certainly wrong
to do. But it was a point in the NFL when they weren't testing for it,
so I had no worry of being tested for the steroids."
Golic says he quit because it made him feel
weird.
What made us feel weird was the limp-wristed
effort by Mike Greenberg to create the appearance that this is all old news.
Said Greenberg before Golic made his
statements: "This is something that you've addressed so many times on
the air that maybe to us it isn't a big deal. But I guess we can't
blame everyone for not having listened to every minute of our show for eight
years."
Time out, guys. If this is something
that Golic has said "so many times on the air" over the last eight years,
why did this exchange (as transcribed by
Awful Announcing) occur last
week?
Greenberg: You were a player in the National
Football League for nine years.
Golic:
Yep.
Greenberg:
And you were clean. You didn't use steroids.
Golic:
No, no. I did try steroids. For about six weeks in an
off-season. Yeah. When I had blown my shoulder out. I
actually didn't do it for six weeks. I did it for a few weeks and stopped
because it had kind of a bad effect as I was lifting.
Greenberg:
Okay. Let's say for the sake of this discussion you did not.
If that's an accurate account of what happened
just last week, then what in the hell was Greenberg talking about when he
said that it's a known fact that Golic used steroids?
Greenberg now has zero credibility with us.
(Of course, he already had zero credibility with us, but we finally have a
good reason for it.)
POSTED 8:02 a.m. EST,
November 15, 2007
MORE EVIDENCE OF INJURY REPORTING
SHENANIGANS?
Though the instant reaction to the
dueling
Wednesday comments from 49ers quarterback Alex Smith and coach Mike
Nolan is that the player and his boss aren't on the same page, we think that
there's something deeper, and more troubling, going on here.
On Thursday, Smith acknowledged that he has
been playing while injured. Informed of Smith's comments, Nolan said
that it was news to him.
"I think that it would be
a good idea if he said that to me before he said that [to the media]," Nolan
said.
"There is a medical staff
with him all the time. All he has to do -- all any player has to do --
is say, 'This is my issue.' That works. That works. In
games, when the doctor says he's OK and the guy says he doesn't want to come
out, that's their choice. If the doc says no, there's no discussion.
So the decision on that is really out of my hands. All I can do is
pull a guy if he's not performing at the level I expect him to do.
Then that's my area. But if the medical staff gives me the information
that somebody is OK, I'm just following up on that. That's what I go
off of. If I was the doctor, I could give you more."
Then,
Nolan attempted to blame the situation on communication problems between
Nolan and the most important player on his team.
"I spoke with him right
after practice, and maybe I need to speak with him again because of these
things being said. In fact, I'll go see him now. The
communication lines, you know, aren't as good as I thought. And we'll
see what that's about. Please don't assume too much, but then again
what makes a good story is you have to assume . . . . And we'll have
to see where that's coming from."
Okay, here's our take.
Based on assuming.
Nolan, we believe, knew
damn well that Smith's shoulder and arm are bothering him. But if
Nolan admitted that he knew that Smith's shoulder was injured and
Smith didn't appear on the Week Ten injury
report, the Niners would be in clear violation of the league's
injury-reporting rules.
And a look at the recent
injury reports shows that the team has been monitoring Smith's arm. In
Week Nine, Smith was
listed as
probable due to his throwing shoulder. In Week Eight, he was not
listed as probable, questionable, or doubtful, but he was listed as
fully participating in practice on Wednesday and Thursday despite a
"right shoulder." In Week Seven,
Smith was probable due to the right shoulder.
At no point in the past
month has his forearm been mentioned as the source of any injury.
So, as we see it, this
isn't about communication between the coach and the quarterback, the
quarterback and the medical staff, the medical staff and the coach, and/or
anyone and the guy who fills out the injury report. This is, in our
view, about whether the team opted to understate Smith's shoulder injury in
the official report.
Smith's failure in this
case, then, wasn't talking to the media about the injury before talking to
the coach. It was talking to the media about the injury at all.
POSTED 12:04 a.m. EST,
November 15, 2007
LEHR ON LIST OF STEROIDS RECIPIENTS
The Dallas Morning News reports that
Buccaneeers guard Matt Lehr is
one of the players identified by a personal trainer who has pleaded
guilty to possession of steroids with intent to distribute.
Lehr previously played for the Cowboys and the
Falcons. While a member of the Falcons, Lehr was suspended for
violating the league's policy on steroids and related substances.
Other players reportedly have been identified
by David Jacobs, 35, but Lehr is the only name that has been reported to
date.
Lehr has a one-year contract with the Bucs,
and he is earning a base salary of $595,000.
POSTED 11:28 p.m. EST;
UPDATED 11:52 p.m. EST, November 14, 2007
SIGNS POINTING TO EARLY RETURN FROM
PETERSON
Amid speculation that coach Brad Childress
will be tempted to use running back Adrian Peterson sooner rather than later
in order to help ensure that Childress will have a job come 2008, the
Minnesota Vikings have released a statement from Dr. James Andrews regarding
his agreement with the plans for the stellar rookie.
"I have reviewed Adrian's MRI and
agree with your assessment and
diagnosis," Dr. Andrews said. "I agree that you are taking the
correct approach. He has an isolated injury to his lateral collateral
ligament. He should be re-evaluated on a week-to-week basis, and
allowed to progress as his symptoms allow."
Our guess? The franchise is fully aware
of the media and fan perception of a conflict of interest on the part of
Childress, and the team is trying hard to make it clear that, if Peterson
comes back, it's only because he's healthy and not because Childress is
trying to save his gig.
But if Peterson's knee gets "blowed up" during
a meaningless game at the back end of the season, the fans won't blame the
team. They'll blame Childress.
By the way, here's what the PFTV guys had to
say about whether Peterson should be shut down.
EMMITT'S INEPTITUDE IS
GETTING NOTICED Speaking of the latest entry
into the PFT lexicon (i.e., "blowed out" and all variations thereof),
the guy who coined this choice of words is getting plenty of attention for
his lack of broadcasting skills. In an item on CBSSports.com,
Mike Freeman observes that, "of almost all the ex-athletes in recent sports
television history who made the transition from player to TV star, [Emmitt]
Smith has had
the most
difficulty transforming his vast on-field experience into cognitive nuggets
and thoughts for viewers." And that's the nicest possible
way anyone ever could have put it. Freeman interviewed a
half-dozen NFL players and journalists on the subject, and found that
"Smith's troubles are among the most discussed topics when it comes to the
sports media." And Freeman writes that
Smith's supporters at ESPN (there actually are some?) believe that "much of
the criticism about Smith is more about a rallying cry for anti-athlete
journalists (and bloggers) who feel former players are taking over the
traditional media." "It's jealousy," one unnamed
producer told Freeman, "plain and simple." Sure, it's jealousy.
Jealousy, the handy culprit behind any criticism ever levied against anyone.
Yes, unnamed producer, I'm jealous of a guy who apparently has found bliss
in his colossal ignorance. I'm jealous of a future Hall of Famer who,
if he doesn't get off the air soon, will be remembered less for his on-field
exploits and more for his pathetic inability to communicate. We've said it before, and
we'll say it again. The real culprit here is whoever watched Emmitt's
audition tape and decided to hire him. It's an insult to all sports
fans to think that we don't care what an analyst says, or how he says it, as
long as he has a name that we instantly recognize. And the people who should be
most offended by Smith's ongoing employment are all of the former players
with the chops to be broadcasters, but who can't get a shot at saying
"blown up" at the grown-up's table because, no matter how good they are at
talking about football, ESPN is more concerned about giving the plum
assignments to the guys who were the best at playing the game. Regardless of whether they
have any ability to talk about it.
POSTED 11:07 p.m. EST,
November 14, 2007
CULPEPPER WILL START AGAINST VIKINGS
Raiders coach Lane Kiffin said on Wednesday
that quarterback
Daunte Culpepper will be the starting quarterback for Sunday's game
against the Vikings.
For Culpepper, it will be his first game at
the Metrodome since being traded to the Dolphins for a second-round pick in
early 2006.
The trade capped several weeks of acrimony
between Culpepper and coach Brad Childress, arising primarily from the
manner in which Culpepper was rehabbing a serious knee injury suffered in
Charlotte the prior season. Surely, Culpepper will be motivated to
make the Vikings regret the decision to send him out of town.
POSTED 7:56 p.m. EST,
November 14, 2007
LYNCH LIKELY OUT FOR SUNDAY NIGHTER
Bills rookie running back Marshawn Lynch is
unlikely to play during Buffalo's Sunday night showdown with the New
England Patriots.
Coach Dick Jauron said on Wednesday that he's
"not overly optimistic" that Lynch will play, due to a severely sprained
ankle.
Jauron also said that it's possible that
Lynch, the No. 12 overall pick in the draft, will miss more than one game.
Lynch's absence means that the top two running
backs in the 2007 draft -- and two of the hottest NFL rookies this season --
will likely be out of action in Week Eleven. Vikings running back
Adrian Peterson, the league's leading rusher, will miss at least one game
with a partially torn LCL. NO FLEXING IN WEEK TWELVE As reported last week by
Michael Hiestand of USA Today, the Week Twelve Sunday night game
between the Eagles and the Patriots will remain in place, as scheduled. NBC has the ability to pick
another game for Sunday nights starting in Week Eleven, subject to league
approval. For Week Eleven, NBC dumped Bears-Seahawks and opted for
Patriots-Bills. Last year, games were
tentatively scheduled for broadcast on NBC during the latter weeks of the
season. But the subject-to-change list was not publicized. This
year, the games assigned preliminarily to NBC were included in the schedule
when it was announced in April. The networks with the Sunday
afternoon games, CBS and FOX, have the ability to protect a certain number
of games. But CBS and FOX have to play their cards in early October,
which means that they might have protected games that, by November or
December, NBC won't want anyway. Hiestand reported last week
that, for Week Thirteen, CBS has protected Jacksonville and Indy. The
game on the NBC docket is Bengals-Steelers. For Week Fourteen, CBS
squatted on Steelers-Pats. FOX has protected Giants-Eagles. NBC
could opt to stick with Colts-Ravens. In Week Fifteen, CBS has
protected Jags-Steelers. The scheduled game is Redskins-Giants. As to Week Sixteen, NBC is due
to air Bucs-Niners. Giants-Bills or Fins-Pats could be moved. In Week Seventeen, no games
can be protected. The scheduled game is Chiefs-Jets. WHAT ABOUT MONDAY NIGHTS? With NBC and its $600 million
annual fee securing the ability to upgrade its weekly games, why can't ESPN
do the same thing on Monday nights, especially since ESPN is paying $1.1
billion per year? PFTV looks at the issue.
Bottom line -- don't expect it
to happen soon.
POSTED 4:53 p.m. EST,
November 14, 2007
STEROIDS DISTRIBUTOR SNITCHES ON COWBOYS
The Dallas Morning News reports that
the man who pleaded guilty on Tuesday to possession of steroids with intent
to distribute has provided to federal investigators
the names of former -- and current -- members of the Dallas Cowboys to
whom he provided steroids.
David Jacobs, 35, pleaded guilty and agreed to
cooperate with prosecutors in identifying the persons to whom steroids were
distributed.
It's an unusual move; usually, prosecutors
start with the folks on the bottom of the operation and work upstream.
In this case, however, the high profile of Jacobs' customers is prompting
authorities to move in the other direction. Celebrities and other
well-known people make for desirable targets of such prosecutions because
the chilling effect is much more pronounced, due to the media coverage of
the situation.
The names of the players in question have not
yet been released publicly.
POSTED 3:59 p.m. EST,
November 14, 2007
FINS BRINGING BACK RICKY?
A league source tells us that the Miami
Dolphins presently intend to welcome back running back Ricky Williams.
Williams was reinstated on Wednesday by NFL
Commissioner Roger Goodell, at a time when some league observers doubted
that Ricky would get a chance to return.
The Miami Herald reports that
Williams has been invited to visit with the team on Thursday.
Agent Leigh Steinberg told the Herald that the team has not said
unequivocally that it will take him back, but that the team has said nothing
to the contrary, either.
Dolphins coach Cam Cameron previously had been
noncommittal about a potential return from Williams. Because the trade
deadline has passed, the team's only options are to bring him back or to cut
him.
If released, Williams would be required to
pass through waivers, and then would become a free agent.
Under the NFL substance-abuse policy, a player
reinstated after a minimum banishment of one year remains in "Stage Three"
of the program for the rest of his career. One more positive test or
other violation would trigger an indefinite suspension.
For more from the PFTV guys, click the button
in the middle of the box.
POSTED 2:41 p.m. EST,
November 14, 2007 GROSSMAN TO START
by Michael David Smith
Vaughn McClure of the Chicago Tribune
reports that Rex Grossman will
start at quarterback for the Bears Sunday against the Seahawks.
The team had a walk-through practice today,
and Grossman took the snaps with the starting offense. Although the Bears
canceled a previously scheduled press conference at which they had said they
would name their quarterback for Sunday, McClure reports that Bears
sources say the decision has already been made to start Grossman.
However, Grossman's replacement, Brian Griese,
hasn't been much better. Griese suffered a shoulder injury in Sunday's game
in Oakland, and Grossman came off the bench to lead the Bears to victory.
It is not clear whether the decision to start
Grossman is because of Griese's injury or simply because Smith thinks
Grossman gives the team the best chance to win, but Grossman is the man. For
this week, anyway.
POSTED 1:20 p.m. EST,
November 14, 2007 DWIGHT FREENEY PLACED ON IR
by Michael David Smith
Colts defensive end Dwight Freeney is out for
the season after being placed on injured reserve today.
The team
announced on its web site that Freeney, a three-time Pro Bowler,
sustained a Lisfranc injury in his left foot in Sunday night's loss to the
San Diego Chargers. T he injury will require surgery and can take as long as
a year to rehabilitate, but the Colts say that team doctors anticipate a
“full and complete recovery in time for the 2008 season.”
The Colts, who have been plagued by injuries
this season, also announced that they have placed linebacker Victor Worsley
on injured reserved, signed linebacker Brandon Archer to the practice squad,
re-signed cornerback/returner T.J. Rushing to the active roster, and signed
receiver Devin Aromashodu off the Houston Texans’ practice squad.
POSTED 12:53 p.m. EST,
November 14, 2007 RICKY ELIGIBLE TO PLAY
MONDAY, NOV. 26 by Michael David Smith
As first reported by ESPN's Chris Mortensen,
National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell has reinstated suspended
Dolphins running back Ricky Williams.
And although it's not clear whether, when, or
with whom Williams will play this season, one thing is clear: ESPN would
love it if he plays as soon as he's eligible. The NFL released this
one-paragraph statement today:
“Ricky Williams was notified this morning by
Commissioner Goodell that he has been reinstated as an NFL player. Williams
can begin attending team meetings and practicing immediately, but will not
be eligible to play in games until Week 12 when the Dolphins play at
Pittsburgh [Monday night, November 26]. The Dolphins will receive a roster
exemption for Williams for up to two weeks when he begins practicing,
starting no later than Monday.”
The Week Twelve Monday Night Football game between
the Steelers and Dolphins would get a serious boost in ratings if it offered
fans the opportunity to see Williams in the NFL for the first time in almost
two years, rather than just the opportunity to see the Dolphins get blown
out. ESPN executives must be praying that he's activated immediately.
That's probably not realistic, though. The
Dolphins have seemed lukewarm at best about bringing Williams back, and he's
probably not in good enough shape to step on the field after just a week of
practice.
POSTED 12:09 p.m. EST,
November 14, 2007 BECK TO START FOR DOLPHINS
by Michael David Smith
Armando Salguero and Jeff Darlington of the
Miami Herald are reporting that Dolphins rookie quarterback John Beck
will start
Sunday's game against the Eagles.
The fans at Dolphin Stadium chanted "we want
Beck" frequently during Sunday's loss to the Buffalo Bills, as Lemon
finished the game completing 16 of 29 passes for just 131 yards.
Although everyone knew it was just a matter of
time before Beck got his shot, it's a little surprising that Lemon is
getting benched while the team is still winless on the season. The thinking
had been that Cameron doesn't want to be the first coach in NFL history to
lead a team to an 0-16 record, and that although Beck is the future of the
franchise, Lemon is more likely to help the team win now.
With everyone talking about whether the
Patriots will go undefeated and deprive the 1972 Dolphins of the opportunity
to open up their infamous champagne bottles this season, the other big
question of the second half of the season might be whether the 0-14 1976
Buccaneers will be drinking any champagne of their own.
POSTED 11:45 a.m. EST,
November 14, 2007 KIFFIN HAS NOT COMMITTED TO
A STARTER by Michael David Smith
In response to our item this morning (scroll
down) about Raiders coach Lane Kiffin's comments on Sirius NFL Radio, a
Sirius source informs us that Kiffin did not say he would start Daunte
Culpepper at quarterback Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings.
Rather, Kiffin said, "We're going to take a
look at [who the starter might be] Wednesday when we practice and see where
we're going with it.”
Culpepper has started four games for the
Raiders this season. Josh McCown, who opened the season as the starter, has
started the Raiders' other five games.
"Well, we've looked at a lot of different
things and discussed some things and that’s definitely one of them, was to
give him a little bit of a package to possibly play," Kiffin said on Sirius.
"So that's something we’re going to look at. You wouldn’t want to start him
right now especially with our offensive struggles around him. There's not
much going on very good around him and it would be a tough situation. So the
first time that you’ll see him, whenever that comes, will be in a limited
role."
POSTED 10:49 a.m. EST,
November 14, 2007 RICKY WILLIAMS REINSTATED
by Michael David Smith
ESPN's Chris Mortensen is reporting that
National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell has
reinstated
Dolphins running back Ricky Williams, who has been suspended for the
last 18 months for repeated violations of the league's substance-abuse
policy.
The 30-year-old Williams announced his
retirement just before the start of training camp in 2004, and it was later
revealed that he would have had to serve a four-game suspension if he hadn't
retired.
In 2005 Williams returned to the Dolphins
(after sitting out that four-game suspension at the start of the season) and
played well, carrying 168 times for 743 yards while splitting time with
Ronnie Brown.
But in December of 2005 Williams again failed
a drug test, and he's been suspended ever since. Although Williams was
expected to be reinstated in April of 2007 (after spending 2006 in the
Canadian Football League), Goodell declined to reinstate him at that time.
Now that he's eligible to play again, it's
unknown whether Williams will play for the Dolphins. Mortensen reports that
the team is expected to get a two-week roster exemption for Williams,
meaning they have until late this month to decide whether to activate him or
release him.
POSTED 10:40 a.m. EST,
November 14, 2007 GOLIC WILL DISCUSS STEROIDS
ON THURSDAY SHOW by Michael David Smith
An ESPN source informs me that former NFL
defensive lineman and current ESPN commentator Mike Golic will talk about
his own steroid use on tomorrow's edition of Mike and Mike in the Morning,
providing additional context to his admission last week that he briefly used
steroids during his NFL career.
During a short exchange with co-host Mike
Greenberg last week, Golic said that he used steroids while he was a player
in an effort to help his recovery from an injury. Later in the week, a
caller asked Golic to clarify his comments, and Golic again acknowledged
that he used steroids.
Both times, Greenberg sounded uncomfortable
with the subject matter and quickly moved on. Golic, however, sounded calm
and clear on both occasions and didn't seem to think he was revealing
anything out of the ordinary.
It is not clear exactly what Golic will say
tomorrow, but it would be helpful if he tells his listeners how he got
steroids, whether steroids were readily available to NFL players during his
career, whether it was his sense that he was cheating by using steroids, or
whether he thought that steroid use was just something that all NFL linemen
did.
Golic played in the NFL from 1986 to 1993. The
bulk of his career was with the Eagles, and his stay in Philadelphia was
bookended by short stops with the Houston Oilers and Miami Dolphins.
POSTED 9:11 a.m. EST;
UPDATED 10:05 a.m. EST,
November 14, 2007 DOES OWNER HAVE FAITH IN
ELI? by Michael David Smith
A headline in today's New York Daily News
reads, "John
Mara: Giants sticking with Eli." But the article below that headline
doesn't quite make it clear that Mara, the Giants' co-owner and
President/CEO, feels confident in quarterback Eli Manning.
"The only thing we evaluate is 'Can we win
with this guy?'" Mara told Ralph Vacchiano of the Daily News. "That's
the one thing. When we talk about any player at the end of the season, the
No.1 question is 'Will he help us win?' And to take it one step further,
'Can we win a championship with this guy?'" Vacchiano reports that Manning
has two years and $17.4 million left on his contract, and that an extension
is likely to be discussed soon. But it's hard to figure what kind of
contract the team and Manning could agree on. Manning hasn't been bad enough
for the Giants to want to sever ties with him, but he also hasn't been good
enough to justify a contract like the ones signed this year by Marc Bulger
of the Rams or Tony Romo of the Cowboys. The bottom line seems to be
not so much that the Giants are sure they have the right quarterback in
Manning, but that they aren't sure they could do any better.
WEDNESDAY MORNING ONE-PER-CLUB ONE-LINERS
by Michael David Smith
The Patriots have the league's fourth-oldest
roster, with
an average age of 27.3. Buffalo's Roscoe Parrish is
averaging 19.4 yards per punt return; the Bills' franchise record is
13.1, set by Keith Moody in 1977. Jets LB Jonathan Vilma says he
expects to make a complete recovery from knee surgery and
return to the team next year. Are the Dolphins worried about
going 0-16? RT L.J. Shelton says, "You
can't even start thinking about that. If you even think about the
possibility of losing any more games you're setting yourself up." The Steelers have placed S
Ryan Clark and TE Jerame Tuman
on injured
reserve. Asked about Browns QB Derek
Anderson, who entered the league as a Raven, Baltimore coach Brian Billick
would say only, "Derek
is a fine young man." Is Browns defensive
coordinator Todd Grantham
starting to feel the heat in Cleveland? The Bengals have put
yet another linebacker on injured reserve. Colts coach Tony Dungy says
most of the backups who were forced into action Sunday night against the
Chargers
graded out well after reviewing film. Jaguars CB Terry Cousin says
he tries to reach out to teammates who get into off-field trouble.
The Titans' defense has
dominated on first down. The Texans are continuing to
juggle their secondary. Chargers coach Norv Turner
knows Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio
from their days at USC. The Broncos have signed DE
Kenny Peterson for the
third time in the
last year. Says Chiefs coach Herm Edwards
of QB Brodie Croyle, "We're not asking him to lead,
just
play quarterback." Raiders coach Lane Kiffin
likes the way
Tim Dwight fields punts. It might be time for the
Cowboys to
discuss a contract extension with LT Flozell Adams. RB Tiki Barber is gone, but
the Giants' 2007 rushing stats are
nearly identical to their
2006 rushing stats. Redskins CB Fred Smoot can't
remember any team he's played on going through a season with
as many injuries in the secondary as the Redskins have had this season. Eagles coach Andy Reid insists
that his team
won't take the winless Dolphins lightly. The Packers invited QB Aaron
Brooks to come
in for a workout Tuesday. Two Lions starters will be
unrestricted free agents after the season;
the Lions don't seem interested in re-signing either of them. Bears G Reuben Brown had
season-ending shoulder surgery but says
he'll be ready to go next year. The Vikings are again in
danger of
a
local TV blackout. Buccaneers CB Brian Kelly is
OK with having
limited playing time. The Saints are facing an
opponent coming off a bye week for the second straight game. The Panthers have
cut QB Drew
Olson. The Falcons have released a
statement saying the personal trainer who pleaded guilty to distributing
anabolic steroids "was never authorized by the Falcons to work with, assist
or train
any of our players." With Maurice Morris playing
better than Shaun Alexander, the Seahawks have
a
running back controversy. Although this is his third
straight season on injured reserve, Cardinals DE Bertrand Berry says he
definitely will not retire. Rams WR Torry Holt has
back-to-back 100-yard games for the first time in more than a year.
When asked if QB Alex Smith's
shoulder is bothering him, 49ers coach Mike Nolan said, "He's
not playing well. I wouldn't put it on the shoulder. Accuracy doesn't
just come from the shoulder. It comes from the technical aspects of your
game."
POSTED 8:31 a.m. EST,
November 14, 2007
CULPEPPER TO GET A CRACK AT VIKES?
A loyal member of PFT Planet tells us that
Raiders coach Lane Kiffin told Sirius NFL Radio on Tuesday that Daunte
Culpepper will be the starting quarterback when his current team travels on
Sunday to face one of his former teams.
The media reports regarding Kiffin's comments
from Monday suggest the he's
pondering a ping-pong back to 'Pepper.
Josh McCown started the year as the No. 1
quarterback. Culpepper got his shot when McCown suffered an injury.
But after a five-touchdown game against Culpepper's other former team, the
Dolphins, Daunte's performance dipped, and McCown re-entered the fray.
What prompted us to believe our reader's
recitation of the contents of the Kiffin interview was that the reader also
said that Kiffin said there will be some packages for rookie quarterback
JaMarcus Russell, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 draft. This
meshes with one of the reports from one of the Sunday pregame shows -- we
think it was Charley Casserly on CBS.
If Culpepper plays, look for him to be
motivated to exact a little vengeance on the Vikes and coach Brad Childress,
who allowed himself to get in a public pissing match with Culpepper in early
2006 regarding the quarterback's rehab from the torn knee ligament trifecta.
COULD CULPEPPER KILL CAREER OF CHILDRESS?
Wouldn't it be ironic if the first
high-profile veteran that Childress sent packing from Minnesota delivers the
death blow to Brad's coaching career there? Though it might be
premature to think that owner Zygi Wilf would dump the second-year head
coach during the season, a posting on a
little-known Vikings blog
suggests that Wilf is pondering the possibility. Though we previously
hadn't heard of the blog in question and know nothing of its track record,
there's something eerily plausible about the tone and content of the
report/rumor/whatever.
And we mention the possibility only because
PFT headquarters is being flooded with e-mails from Vikings fans who are
desperate to see Childress fired. In six-plus years of doing this,
I've never seen such fervent and passionate displays of dislike for an NFL
head coach.
One reader said he's going to name his dog "Florio"
(thanks?) based on our Tuesday story regarding the possibility that
Childress will push Adrian Peterson back to the field before he's ready.
Another reader who has been trying to recruit me to lead the charge to get
Childress ousted closed the message with, "Help us Flo-Bi-Wan Kenobi . . .
you're our only hope."
It's unclear how all of this will play out,
but one thing is certain. Childress is every bit as embattled as his
predecessors Mike Tice and Dennis Green ever were. The difference?
There doesn't seem to be anyone who is taking up the other side of the
cause.
The challenge for Wilf will be to admit that
he blundered when he hired Childress. And that just might claim the
job(s) of whoever in the front office recommended the move. Still,
unless Wilf is trying to pull a Major League, running the
organization so far into the ground that the locals won't care if/when it
moves to L.A., he surely is realizing that something is seriously wrong --
and that meaningful change is needed.
POSTED 11:12 p.m. EST,
November 13, 2007
FREENEY DONE FOR THE SEASON?
John Clayton of ESPN.com reports that Colts
defensive end Dwight Freeney
might have
suffered the dreaded Lisfranc injury on Sunday night in San Diego.
If so, Freeney could be lost for the year.
Citing an unnamed source, Clayton says that
initial tests suggest that Freeney sustained a mid-foot sprain, and that if
further tests confirm the diagnosis season-ending surgery will be required.
Swelling in the foot is delaying the process.
POSTED 10:20 p.m. EST,
November 13, 2007
BOLLER BACK UNDER CENTER
With Ravens starting quarterback Steve McNair
recovering from an injury to his non-throwing shoulder, former starter Kyle
Boller will take
the snaps for next few weeks.
McNair has a subluxation of his left shoulder,
which means that the joint popped out and popped back in. Though the
shoulder isn't dislocated, the movement creates damage to the surrounding
tissue.
"Kyle will start this week, and it will be two
to three weeks before Steve can get back to activity," coach Brian Billick
said during his weekly show on WBAL radio. "If you see the television
copy when he took the last hit, you can see it happen. There's
initially a numbness and then you wake up in the morning and it hurts.
That subluxation will put him out for a minimum of two to three weeks."
Boller's backup will be rookie Troy Smith, the
2006 Heisman Trophy winner.
A one-time first-round draft pick, Boller was
benched after the Ravens acquired McNair via trade. After leading the
team to a 13-3 record last season, McNair has been plagued this year by
injury and ineffectiveness.
POSTED 7:30 p.m. EST,
November 13, 2007
FREENEY COULD MISS FOUR GAMES
Colts defensive end Dwight Freeney
could miss up to four games with a left foot injury, according to the
Associated Press.
Freeney will be replaced by Simeon Rice, who
was claimed on waivers from the Broncos.
An industry source tells us that the Colts
were the only team to make a waiver claim for Rice. Frankly, we're
surprised that a team like the Titans or the Jags didn't anticipate Indy's
interest in Rice and squat on his rights. The Titans are one of the
teams with whom Rice visited after being cut by the Buccaneers.
POSTED 7:24 p.m. EST,
November 13, 2007
BERRY DONE FOR THE BIRDS
Cardinals defensive end
Bertrand Berry is out for the year, with a torn triceps muscle.
Berry suffered the injury during Sunday's win
over the Lions. The extent of the injury was determined via a Monday
MRI.
Joe Tafoya and Darryl Blackstock will fill in
for Berry.
The 4-5 Cardinals are a game behind the
Seahawks for first place in the NFC West. The two teams play again on
December 9. Arizona won the first meeting.
POSTED 4:38 p.m. EST;
UPDATED 5:05 p.m. EST, November 13, 2007
TRAINER WITH NFL CONNECTIONS PLEADS GUILTY
TO STEROIDS CHARGES
A North Texas personal trainer with supposed
connections to members of the Cowboys and the Falcons has
pleaded guilty to charges of possessing anabolic steroids, with intent
to distribute.
Under the deal, David Jacobs will receive a
sentence of three years' probation in exchange for spilling the beans to
prosecutors about the distribution of illegal steroids.
In October 2005, federal agents seized 10,000
units of steroids from Jacobs' house. Jacobs has admitted to
distributing 40,000 units of steroids and several thousand units of Human
Growth Hormone.
Cowboys spokesman Rich Dalrymple told KTVT-TV
that no players have worked with Jacobs, and that the organization had no
knowledge of the charges. The Falcons said the same thing.
Jacobs claims on the web site of his
supplement company that he has
offered guidance to members of the Cowboys and the Falcons. SO WHAT WILL GREENBERG AND
GOLIC HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THIS? In case you missed it last
week, ESPN Radio's Mike Golic twice admitted to using steroids while playing
pro football, and on both occasions his tag-team partner Mike Greenberg
abruptly changed the subject. Our own MDS helped advance the
ball last week (scroll down to November 9), and the fine folks at Awful
Announcing have been banging the drum about the subject -- including a
recent look at ESPN's troubling practice of scrubbing unflattering content
from podcasts and video clips. So what will Mike and the
Fatman have to say about the possibility that a guy in Texas might have been
juicing up members of the Cowboys and Falcons? In fairness, they
should say nothing at all, unless and until Golic fully discloses everything
he knows about steroid use when he played. Hey, if these former players
and coaches are going to make a second career out of talking on the radio or
television, it's unfair (in our view) for them to pretend that they know
nothing about controversial topics, such as drug use or cheating. For example, guys like Jimmy
Johnson were crowing like horny roosters about cheating after the
Pats were caught, but not before. Still, at least Johnson came clean
when the issue landed on the front burner. Golic tried to, but his wife
wouldn't let him. And is it really surprising
that Greenberg would run interference for Golic? Greenberg's dream,
which he foolishly wears on his blouse, is to be in the booth on Monday
Night Football on a regular basis. Though he's not smart enough to
keep that to himself while on the air, he's smart enough to know that
without Golic it'll never happen. Really, Greenberg is nothing
without Golic. And Greenberg realizes it. So there's no way that
Greenberg is going to let the big oaf take down his own career, especially
since to do so would be to torpedo Greenberg's, too.
POSTED 2:23 p.m. EST, November 13, 2007 BILLS STICK WITH LOSMAN
by Michael David Smith
The Buffalo Bills have decided not to switch
quarterbacks as they prepare for their biggest game of the season.
"We
will continue with J.P. Losman as our starting quarterback for our game
with New England this Sunday," Jauron said in a statement posted on
the team's official web site.
The Bills are on a four-game winning streak. The last two wins, over the Dolphins and Bengals, were started by Losman.
The previous two wins, over the Jets and Ravens, were started by rookie
Trent Edwards. Losman replaced Edwards in the win over the Jets after
Edwards suffered a wrist injury.
Losman did not play particularly well against
the Dolphins, completing 12 of 23 passes for 157 yards, but Jauron said he
was pleased with the way Losman led the Bills back from behind in the fourth
quarter.
The team said in its statement that Edwards is
now healthy. But with the Bills at a surprising 5-4 and now in the wild card
race, Jauron apparently thinks Losman gives him the best chance of winning
now.
POSTED 12:58 p.m. EST, November 13, 2007 LACK OF DISCIPLINE IN SAN
DIEGO? by Michael David Smith
The story didn't get much attention, but Kevin
Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reported on Sunday that some
Chargers players
stayed out past curfew last Friday in Minneapolis, 36 hours before the
team turned in its worst performance of the season in a loss to the Vikings.
Jim Trotter of Sports Illustrated
reported during an appearance today on ESPN First Take that one of
those players was linebacker Shawne Merriman.
According to Acee, the team responded to the
curfew violation by not only fining the players involved, but also firing
director of security Mike Cash, whose job description includes overseeing
the security guards on the players' floor at the team's hotel and ensuring
that the players are in on time. Whether or not there's any
link between the players staying out late and their weak performance against
the Vikings, this raises the question of whether there's enough discipline
on the Chargers. Marty Schottenheimer, the
coach the Chargers fired after last season's 14-2 record and first-round
playoff loss, is known for having a good relationship with his players but
also for running a tight ship. Norv Turner, the coach brought in to replace
Schottenheimer, doesn't have that reputation. Jerry Rice, who played for
Turner on the Raiders, once said that Turner "had
no control" over the team.
Neither Turner nor General Manager A.J. Smith
(who made the decision to fire Cash) would discuss the curfew violations.
But if the Turner-coached Chargers don't start playing more like last year's Schottenheimer-coached Chargers, the questions about whether there's enough
discipline in San Diego won't go away.
POSTED 12:05 p.m. EST;
UPDATED 12:16 p.m. EST, November 13, 2007 SIGNS POINT TO BOLLER
REPLACING MCNAIR by Michael David Smith
Jamison Hensley of the Baltimore Sun
reports that Ravens quarterback Steve McNair has an injury to his
non-throwing shoulder that might lead to backup Kyle Boller starting
Sunday's game against the Browns.
Ravens coach Brian Billick has said he has
confidence in both McNair and Boller, but the injury to McNair -- which is
described only as "substantial soreness" -- might actually be a blessing in
Billick's eyes, in that it gives him an excuse to make the switch without
actually having to come out and say he's benching McNair.
The fans in Baltimore booed McNair off the
field Sunday as he threw for just 128 passing yards and had three turnovers
in the Ravens' 21-7 loss to the Bengals. McNair said afterward that he
"probably would agree" if Billick decided to start Boller in his place.
McNair has started six games this season,
completing 133 of 205 passes for 1,113 yards, with two touchdowns and four
interceptions. Boller has started three games and appeared in four others,
completing 81 of 134 passes for 772 yards, with three touchdowns and three
interceptions. Statistically, the biggest difference between the two
quarterbacks is that Boller has fumbled once, while McNair has fumbled eight
times.
At age 34 and with a long injury history,
McNair seems to be near the end of his career. If he loses his starting job
to Boller, it's entirely possible that he's started his last NFL game. TUESDAY AFTERNOON ONE-PER-CLUB ONE-LINERS
by Michael David Smith Seahawks RB Maurice Morris had Seattle's
first
rushing touchdown since Week Two. When asked if QB Alex Smith is starting to doubt himself, 49ers coach Mike
Nolan said, "Without question, it has to be on his mind, or
he wouldn't be a pro." With the Cowboys'
next three games at home, they could get off to the best start in franchise
history. Said Giants WR Plaxico Burress of his injured ankle, "It
seems like it's getting worse." Eagles S Brian Dawkins
volunteered to play on the kickoff coverage team Sunday. Redskins S Sean Taylor is
out at least two weeks with a sprained knee. The Packers rank
first in the league in passing yards and last in the league in rushing
yards. Lions RT George Foster
leads the league in false start penalties. Bears coach Lovie Smith says
he doesn't know who will start at quarterback this week. Vikings coach Brad Childress is being
compared to Les
Steckel. The Buccaneers' bye week was
as good as a win. Panthers DE Julius Peppers has
just 1.5 sacks
this season, but coach John Fox says there's no truth to rumors that an
illness has slowed him down. Saints RB Reggie Bush
suffered a concussion
Sunday that coach Sean Payton said was not serious. Falcons QB Joey Harrington has led the team to two straight wins, but coach
Bobby Petrino
might bench him for Byron Leftwich. Cardinals WR Anquan Boldin says
he
won't be 100 percent all season because of a hip injury. Says Rams coach Scott Linehan of his son, "Marcus did tell me during the bye,
he said, 'Dad,
why don't you make game plans that work?' Honest to God, that's what my
7-year-old said." The father of Patriots QB Tom Brady thinks his son
played better last year than he has this year. Bills GM Marv Levy is
pleased with the team's progress. Dolphins LB Zach Thomas, who has missed four games because of concussions,
says the team's 0-9 record
makes no difference in his decision of whether or not to play this year. More than three weeks after Jets LB Jonathan Vilma suffered a knee injury,
coach Eric Mangini finally told the press which knee --
the right one. The Steelers have
problems with their kick coverage. The Browns
wasted their timeouts against the Steelers Sunday, but coach Romeo Crennel
defended his decisions Monday. Ravens LB Terrell Suggs says it bothers him that
the home fans booed the team Sunday. Says Bengals K Shayne Graham of his seven field goals Sunday, "Between all
the phone calls and text messages, people were congratulating me and
thanking me for the fantasy league points." Colts coach Tony Dungy said of the false start penalty late in Sunday's loss
to the Chargers, "It was a play that we've run numerous times and never been
called for it.
It got called this time." When asked if he'll play Sunday, Jaguars QB David Garrard said, "I'm
almost positive." Titans coach Jeff Fisher says
he still has faith in QB Vince Young. Texans QB Matt Schaub has missed time after suffering a concussion, but he
says, "I'm
ready to go; there's no doubt about it." Chargers CB Antonio Cromartie leads the league in interceptions, but
he's still not a starter. Although he's out for the season, Broncos WR Rod Smith
still travels with the
team to road games. Even though they're 4-5, Chiefs G Brian Waters says, "We're
still in the thick of things." Raiders QB Andrew Walter says, "My goal is never to be a career backup.
I want to play and be a starter."
POSTED 10:21 a.m. EST;
UPDATED 11:03 a.m. EST, November 13, 2007
PACMAN COPS A PLEA
Various media reports indicate that Titans
cornerback Pacman Jones
will plead no contest to one charge of conspiracy to commit disorderly
conduct, in exchange for testimony in connection with the identity of the
person who shot Tommy Urbanski at a Vegas strip club in February.
Under the deal, Jones will be eligible for
probation. Under Nevada law, conspiracy to commit disorderly conduct
is a gross misdemeanor.
He reportedly will be sentenced after he
testifies, which suggests to us that prosecutors want to be sure that the
story Jones tells on the witness stand is the same story that he apparently
told them in order to get the deal.
And, surely, Jones' testimony will be slightly
more detailed than "I didn't see nothing." Prosecutors wouldn't have
been willing to cut the deal with Jones unless Jones can give them the
shooter.
But while the move ensures that Pacman won't
go to jail in Nevada, there are some potential drawbacks.
First, Pacman will now be regarded as a snitch
in certain circles. (Of course, this might actually be a good thing
for Jones -- since it gives him a reason, rooted in self-preservation, for
not hanging out in strip clubs at 3:00 a.m.)
Second, the no-contest plea exposes him to
further discipline under the league's Personal Conduct Policy. Though
Jones already has been suspended for a year, the suspension was imposed
before he was even formally charged in the Vegas incident. And while
some might believe that the NFL has given Jones an indication as to what the
penalty resulting from the no-contest plea will be, the league declined to
get involved in the Mike Vick plea discussions. Surely, the NFL stayed
out of this one, too.
Third, the plea potentially exposes Jones to
no-brainer civil liability to Urbanski. We don't know much (i.e.,
anything) about Nevada law regarding joint and several liability, but
there's a good chance that Jones will ultimately be on the hook for the
entire judgment entered against him, the shooter, and any other responsible
parties. If the Urbanski civil suit goes to trial, the verdict likely
will be well into the seven figures.
But maybe Jones realized that he had no other
option. He was facing two counts of felony coercion. He most
likely didn't take the deal because he was confident that he could beat the
rap -- especially in light of the various problems that the plea potentially
will cause for him. WISCONSIN FANS MIGHT MISS
OUT ON PACKERS-COWBOYS When NFL regular-season games
are shown on NFL Network, the local markets of the involved teams will air
the contests on one of the local broadcast stations. But, in the Packers-obsessed
state of Wisconsin, this only will apply in Milwaukee and Green Bay.
Most of the rest of the state will be cheese out of luck when Green Bay
visits Dallas on November 29, because NFLN isn't carried by Time Warner or
Charter Communications. "How often are you going to
have an opportunity to see
Brett Favre and a really great Green Bay Packers team play an
up-and-coming player that has a lot of flair to his game?" Cowboys owner
Jerry Jones said last week. Indeed, Cowboys quarterback
Tony Romo is routinely compared to Packers quarterback Brett Favre, they'll
meet for the first time later this year. "If you miss that live, you've
missed it," Jones said. "And it may not come again.” The battle between NFLN and
the cable companies comes down to one simple reality, in our view.
The cable companies realize the value of the NFL brand, and they want to use
it to prompt consumers to choose to pay more money by cramming it onto a
higher tier. The NFL thinks that NFLN should be part of expanded basic
cable, and therefore available in many more homes. Yeah, we're biased on this one
because there's an NFL Network ad on the left side of this page, and because
yours truly's face for radio has shown up on NFLN a couple of times.
But when you consider all of the junk that resides on expanded basic cable,
how in the world can the cable companies not justify including the network
owned and operated by the pre-eminent professional sports league? Really, why should the cable
companies be permitted to use NFLN as the carrot to justify sticking us with
a bunch of other sports channels we don't want? Doesn't it make more
sense to drop a couple of the crap factories on the high end of the dial for
programming that is capable of generating good ratings all of the time --
and huge ratings on several evenings in November and December? But there's hope. Until
the cable companies are forced by their own good judgment or, possibly, the
government to give the consumers what they want, there are alternatives.
And, in Wisconsin, we have a
feeling that satellite dishes will be popping up like mushrooms in a damp
forest over the rest of the month.
POSTED 9:11 a.m. EST;
UPDATED 9:57 a.m. EST, November 13, 2007
COULD COACH'S DESIRE TO SAVE HIS JOB PUT
A.P. AT RISK?
With Vikings rookie phenom Adrian Peterson
shelved for the coming weekend due to a torn LCL in his right knee, the
coaching staff now faces a difficult decision.
At 3-6 and fading, do they bring Peterson back
after a couple of weeks off, or do they shut him down for the rest of the
year?
One orthopedic specialist told Sean Jensen of
the St. Paul Pioneer Press that Peterson's long-term interests are
best served by
taking the rest of the year off. "It's not realistic," Dr.
Johnny Benjamin, the chief of orthopedics at Indian River Medical Center in
Vero Beach, Fla, told Jensen. "Saying it's a Grade 2-plus [tear] is the
doctors trying to give coach [Brad] Childress and all the Viking faithful
some hope. "But it's a torn ligament, and
a torn ligament is going to take six weeks to heal. And that's for
someone like a doctor or news writer, who doesn't go out there and make cuts
like Adrian Peterson obviously does." Though the fact that Dr.
Benjamin allows himself to be called "Johnny" dilutes the message a bit in
our eyes, the team with the horns on their helmets is indeed residing on the
horns of a major dilemma. With one of the most exciting
young players that the NFL has ever seen, do they put him at risk in a
string of meaningless games, or do they save him for an assault on the
record books in 2008? The only problem is that the
guy who likely will be making the final decision in this regard has a clear
conflict of interest. For coach Brad Childress, a
4-12 or 5-11 finish might mean that he won't be in the picture come 2008.
So why, then, would he care about the long-term consequences of putting
Peterson at risk? Dr. Johnny realizes this, as
should anyone else with an ounce of common sense.
"If you're looking out for that young man's
career, you'd shut him down," Benjamin said. "But if coach Childress
is looking for his job security, then you're trying to figure out a way to
get him back on the field." Based on what we've seen of
Childress, we think that he'll deem it appropriate to go to owner Zygi Wilf
and try to use the situation as leverage to gain an assurance that the
second-year coach will get a third year if Peterson is kept on the sidelines
for the rest of the season. If that happens, we think that
Wilf should fire Childress on the spot. The long-term interests of a
professional football team and its brightest young star should not be chips
in a game of poker aimed at extending the employment of one man. So
while it's a reality that the potential absence of Peterson increases the
possibility that Childress will be dumped, Childress needs to still make
decisions not based on what's good for Brad Childress, but on what's good
for the team and for Peterson. Even if Peterson is pleading with the
coach to play. Meanwhile, several readers who
have voiced to us a desire to see Childress go fear that the three-year
buyout requirement will keep Wilf from pulling the trigger. But if
we're going to evaluate the impact of the termination from a financial
standpoint, the buyout needs to be balanced against a projection of the
decreased revenue that could come from keeping Childress beyond 2008 -- and
the intangible consequences of potentially having multiple home games not
available for local viewing. As some Internet hack recently
explained on SportingNews.com, there's already enough evidence to support a
reasonable opinion that
Childress is unfit for the job he now holds. Whether Peterson does
or doesn't play another snap this year shouldn't matter. And that's
why it will be important for Wilf to get personally involved in the question
of whether the future of the franchise will unnecessarily be put at risk by
its present (and potentially short-term) steward.
DOOR SWINGS OPEN FOR LYNCH,
THOMAS? Vikings rookie running back
Adrian Peterson has another reason for wanting to continue to play this
year. Actually, he's got 250,000
reasons. Specifically, Peterson will
receive an extra quarter of a million dollars if he's named the NFL rookie
of the year for 2007. Though some think that
Peterson's 296-yard effort from Week Nine against the Chargers (which
followed his 200-plus effort at Chicago from last month) was enough to seal
the deal, Bills running back Marshawn Lynch is only 330 rushing yards behind
Peterson. If Peterson doesn't return to action this season, Lynch most
likely will catch him. Then again, Lynch is now
hobbled by an ankle injury that could hold him back over the
balance of the season. The dark horse is this race
would have to be Browns left tackle Joe Thomas, who has already become
regarded as an elite player at a position that he'll likely maintain deep
into the next decade. Though the position he plays doesn't
produce many/any headline-generating statistics, folks who follow the game
as a whole realize that Thomas has had a big impact for a team with a
quarterback who suddenly has enough time to set up and throw. END OF ROAD FOR EMMITT? In what hardly can be
described as an earth-shattering scoop, there's a feeling in Bristol that
ESPN will not include Emmitt Smith in its 2008 NFL coverage. But, as one source with
knowledge of the situation told us, the folks at ESPN/ABC/Disney will have
to eat a lot of cash for the privilege of not having Emmitt on the air.
That's because Smith apparently has a multi-year deal, under which he'll
undoubtedly be entitled to ongoing payments for the term of the contract if
he is fired without cause. Though we haven't seen the
contract, there's a chance that ESPN could try to sever ties on a for-cause
basis, if a plausible argument can be made that Emmitt failed in some way to
live up to his end of the bargain. If, for example, the arrangement
requires Emmitt to engage in a certain amount of show preparation or to
otherwise provide a competent and capable work product, the network could
assert that Smith breached the contract. And if they take that tack,
there will be plenty of supporting evidence. Most recently, Emmitt mangled
the name of the guy who "blowed out" the knee of Adrian Peterson, which
suggests that Emmitt did little or nothing to prepare for the part of the
17-hour Monday night pregame festivities during which he was called upon to
comment on the Peterson injury. (Emmitt also offered up one of his
patented tortured phrases when discussing the NFC West after the game -- the
quote is near the bottom of our Live Blog
of the game.) But ESPN would also have to
take into account the potential P.R. impact of baiting the NFL's all-time
leading rusher into litigation. In the end, the smart move would
likely be to park him on the sidelines, like ESPN did with Joey Sunshine,
and eventually work out a buyout for less than the value of the remainder of
the deal.
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"Dr. Johnny Benjamin, nationally renowned chief of orthopedics at Indian
River medical facility and spinal injury and surgeon expert is weighing in
on Peterson's situation. Having worked with a myriad of pro athletes across
a plethora of sports, Dr. Benjamin is familiar with AP's predicament. He
routinely gives advice to athletes in his situation and not just that of the
medical sort. He has very strong opinions about the treatment of pro
athletes, the nature of non-guaranteed contract in the NFL, and how all of
this contributes to the business of medicine in pro sports, and the decision
making of pro sports doctors -- whom Benjamin has dubbed Spin Doctors."
Grossman started the first three games of the season but played badly, and
although coach Lovie Smith steadfastly said he had confidence in Grossman,
Smith eventually benched Grossman after a three-interception outing in a
loss to the Cowboys.
Defensive end Simeon Rice, who was claimed off waivers from the Denver
Broncos Monday, will need to find a fountain of youth and find it in a hurry
if he's going to be an adequate replacement for Freeney. Rice played for
Colts coach Tony Dungy when the two were in Tampa Bay, so he'll know what's
expected of him in Dungy's defense, but Rice is well past his prime.
Salguero and Darlington report that coach Cam Cameron told Cleo Lemon he was
being benched and told Beck he was being promoted in meetings this morning
with each of them.
Whether it's Culpepper or McCown, the Raiders' starting quarterback will
basically be a placeholder until rookie JaMarcus Russell, the first pick in
this year's draft, is ready to play. In the Sirius interview, Kiffin said
whenever Russell gets his initial playing time, he will be asked to run a
specific package of a few plays that he's comfortable with, rather than
running the whole offense.
Vacchiano then writes, "Mara declined to give his answer, or to offer an
evaluation of his franchise quarterback yesterday." Although Vacchiano
concludes that the Giants' front office believes the answer to the question
"Can we win a championship with this guy?" is "yes," it doesn't inspire a
lot of confidence that Mara wouldn't come out and say so.
"I
have to wait and see," Billick said. "Right now, the injury is one that
we'll have to address first and foremost to see what exactly that it is and
make our evaluations going forward."
