POSTED 10:23 p.m. EST, March 1, 2006

 

WONDERLIC LEAKER APOLOGIZED TO MACK

 

As part of the ongoing Vince Young Wonderlic fiasco, the latest we've heard is that the person who leaked Young's score to NFL officials at the combine was required to personally apologize to Texas coach Mack Brown for failing to keep the matter confidential.

 

We've also been reminded that the extent to which the NFL moved quickly to address the matter, calling Young's first result a scoring error while at the same time permitting Young to take the test again, possibly had its roots in Gil Brandt's cozy relationship with Brown.  In past years, Brandt has placed a positive spin on matters such as the results of Texas players from the pro day workouts.

 

We still think that the primary factor for the league's about-face was its desire to maintain a good relationship with college coaches.  Brown likely already is pissed that Young was enticed by NFL riches to leave school with a year of eligibility remaining; the fact that the league also allowed Young's ridiculously low Wonderlic score to be publicized naturally caused Brown to go through the roof, since it makes the "college" part of "college football" seem even more like the sham that it very possibly is.

 

Meanwhile, we continue to be amazed by the extent to which some members of the media are trying to dismiss the Wonderlic results as something they're not.  Bill Curry called the thing a "psychological profile" during a Wednesday appearance on ESPN Radio, and Joe Theismann brushed it off as a mere "reading comprehension" test on The Dan Patrick Show.

 

It's neither.  It's a basic intelligence test.  Sure, you have to be able to comprehend written words in order to answer the questions.  But identifying the ninth month of the year is hardly the same thing as reading a passage of text and then answering questions regarding its meaning.

 

Look, we realize that the Wonderlic score is just one small part of a much bigger picture when it comes to figuring out how a guy will do in the NFL.  But saying that the Wonderlic is a psychological profile or a reading comprehension test is no different than saying that the 40-yard dash is a pass-catching drill or a feat of strength.

 

UNCAPPED YEAR 101

 

Assuming that the powers-that-be can't get a new CBA hammered out by Friday, and assuming that NFLPA executive director Gene Upshaw intends to force an uncapped year, it's critical for everyone -- including most importantly the players -- to understand what a year without a salary cap really means.

 

Here are the key points.

 

1.  There will be no limit on what teams can spend on players, but there also will be no minimum, either.  Currently, teams are required annually to spend at least 54 percent of the projected Defined Gross Revenues on player costs.  In an uncapped year, teams can spend as little as they choose.

 

2.  Only players with six or more accrued seasons will be eligible for unrestricted free agency.  Players with three, four, or five accrued seasons will be restricted free agents.  In other words, Bucs quarterback Chris Simms (who signed a one-year restricted free agent tender on Wednesday), will be a restricted free agent again in 2007.  Under normal circumstances, he would be eligible for unrestricted free agency in 2007.

 

3.   All teams will have an extra transition tag in 2007.  Currently, teams can use either a franchise tag or a transition tag.  So next year the teams will be able to restrict two otherwise unrestricted free agents.

 

4.  The final four playoff teams from 2006 will be permitted to sign only their own unrestricted free agents.  For each of their unrestricted free agents signed by someone else, they can replace them with an unrestricted free agent signed from another team.

 

5.  The next four playoff teams will be subject to the same rules as the final four.  They also will be able to sign one unrestricted free agent at a first-year salary of $1.5 million or more, and one at a first-year salary of less than $1 million (not including signing bonus), with increases of no more than 30 percent of the player's first-year salary.

 

The message here is that there are some significant limits to the cash bonanza that the players are expecting in 2007.  It's another reason, in our opinion, for both sides to get the deal done.

 

POSTED 6:27 p.m. EST; UPDATED 6:32 p.m. EST, March 1, 2006

 

POSTED 5:50 p.m. EST, March 1, 2006

 

SPECIAL MASTER RULING COMPLICATES MATTERS

 

At a time when NFL teams are trying to figure out how in the hell they'll stay on the right side of the salary cap absent an extension to the Collective Bargaining Agreement, a league source tells us that a Special Master has ruled on Wednesday that option bonus payments will count as signing bonus money for the purposes of the so-called 30 percent rule.

 

This means that it will be even harder to construct contracts in 2006, the final capped year under the current CBA.  Under the 30 percent rule, a player's compensation cannot increase in 2007 or beyond by more than 30 percent of the player's 2006 salary, excluding signing bonus.

 

In order to drive up the basis for the application of the 30 percent rule, some teams and agents had planned to transform all or part of the signing bonus into an option bonus due, for example, five days after the contract was signed. 

 

Per the Special Master's ruling, this tactic won't permit the option bonus money to be treated as 2006 salary, which then will make it even harder for teams to strike deals that the players will accept under terms that will fit within the 2006 salary cap.

 

Instead, both signing bonus and option bonus money will now be excluded from the player's 2006 salary, for the purposes of applying the 30 percent rule.

 

We're also told that, in a separate ruling, the Special Master invalidated a device that the Colts had been using to fit recent deals under the cap.  We presently don't have any further details in this regard, but it could spell trouble for a franchise that somehow has been finding a way to throw around money at a time when other teams are looking for ways to make cuts.

 

Unlike an arbitrator, who resolves issues such as player grievances, a Special Master handles matters requiring interpretation of the language of the CBA.

 

POSTED 5:15 p.m. EST; LAST UPDATED 5:35 p.m. EST, March 1, 2006

 

FINS DUMP MADISON

 

On an afternoon when several teams already are cutting veteran players in anticipation of a salary cap that won't be bumped up by a new CBA, a league source tells us that the Dolphins have released cornerback Sam Madison.

 

The move is not a surprise, and it likely would have occurred even if the CBA had been extended.

 

Madison was a second-round pick of the Dolphins in 1997.  He was scheduled to earn $3.42 million in 2006, and $4.5 million in 2007.

 

Elsewhere, the Broncos have released three veterans:  running back Mike Anderson, defensive lineman Trevor Pryce, and tight end Jeb Putzier.  The Bills have cut defensive tackle Sam Adams, and an industry source tells us that the Bills also have dumped safety Lawyer Milloy.  The Panthers have released defensive tackle Brentson Buckner, running back Rod Smart, and running back Stephen Davis.

 

Many of those guys arguably would have been squeezed out even with a new CBA, and it's possible that their teams were trying to get ahead of the unprecedented flurry of paperwork that will hit the league office on March 3, if there is no extension of the deal between the league and the players' union. 

 

But we're also hearing from some league insiders that the move is a sign that teams are betting against a CBA getting done.

 

The other line of thinking is that some teams are sacrificing players on the eve of Thursday's ownership meeting in New York, in order to demonstrate to the rest of the teams the importance of working out a deal on revenue sharing, which then would permit the CBA to be extended.

 

POSTED 5:00 p.m. EST; UPDATED 5:12 p.m. EST, March 1, 2006

 

UPSHAW FACES UPRISING

 

With roughly eight hours of windshield time on Wednesday to work the phone lines, a clear theme is emerging from our discussions with league insiders.

 

The NFLPA has left the players in the dark regarding the status of the discussions regarding a CBA extension, and the players are getting pissed.

 

Very pissed.

 

We're told that there has been little or no communication from NFLPA executive director Gene Upshaw and/or NFLPA president Troy Vincent to the rank-and-file regarding the status of the discussions.  With rampant media reports of a looming massacre of veteran players (and the blood already is flowing), guys are getting nervous.

 

But yet the players are getting no information.

 

So while Upshaw is being praised by some in the media for digging in his heels against the NFL, many of his constituents would like to dig their toes into his ass.

 

With that said, we continue to believe that this whole exercise in high drama is a well-orchestrated act between Upshaw and Commissioner Paul Tagliabue to get a deal done at the eleventh hour.

 

If it isn't -- and if free agency launches without a new CBA in place -- we predict that there will be open calls at the annual meeting of player representatives for Upshaw to be fired. 

 

Why?  Because guys who are in line for decent money will end up, absent an extension, with low-money deals.  Take Steelers running back Verron Haynes, for example.  With a new CBA, he'd likely get a deal averaging $1.5 million or so a year.  Without a new CBA, he's looking at the one-year minimum, at best.

 

But we shouldn't feel bad for him because he'll be a free agent in 2007, when there's no salary cap, right?

 

Wrong.  Too many players and media types simply don't realize that, in the uncapped year, only guys with six years of credited service will be eligible for unrestricted free agency.  Guys with three to five years will be subject to the restricted free agency rules.  So if Haynes rips it up in 2006, his reward will be one of the three levels of RFA tenders.

 

Bottom line -- Upshaw is taking a hell of a gamble.  If a deal gets done, the players quickly will forgive and forget.  If it doesn't, Upshaw might want to take out a lease on Saddam Hussein's spider hole.  

 

'SKINS CLEAR SOME CAP ROOM

 

At a time when the Washington Redskins are facing a potential salary purge that, by some estimates, could leave them with roughly 25 veterans under contract, we're told that the team has restructured the deal of running back Clinton Portis in order to create some cap room.

 

Specifically, a sizeable roster bonus owed to Portis has been converted to a guaranteed payment, which spreads the total value of the money over four years.  Portis' contract expressly authorized the team to make the move.

 

Meanwhile, the thinking is that all non-core Redskins players making more than the minimum salary for 2006 will be jettisoned by midnight Thursday in order to enable the team to get under the salary cap, which is expected to be in the range of $95 million, if the CBA is not extended.  (The teams still haven't received the official numbers from the league office, due to the state of flux regarding the CBA talks.)

 

One guy pegged for a release likely won't be cut loose just yet.  Linebacker LaVar Arrington has a huge cap number for 2006 -- but the cap charge will be even bigger if he's released.  With a $6.5 million roster bonus not due until July, the team can hang onto him for now and then cut the cord as the deadline for coughing up the money approaches.

 

Even if a new CBA is done, look for the 'Skins to keep him around until the eve of the deadline for paying the bonus, since doing so would keep him from getting a taste of the big money that flows on the open market in the early stages of free agency. 

 

If it happens that way, Arrington can thank his agents for giving the 'Skins the motivation to stick it to him on his way out the door.  After his current contract was signed in December 2003, Arrington's agents filed a grievance claiming that the team fraudulently removed from the final draft of the contract a second $6.5 million roster bonus.      

 

POSTED 6:19 a.m. EST, March 1, 2006

 

MARVIN CLAIMS LEAKER IS ALREADY GONE

 

Several days after vowing to cut the guy who leaked to us in January the fact that Bengals receiver Chad Johnson got physical with receivers coach Hue Jackson and head coach Marvin Lewis during halftime of a playoff loss to Pittsburgh, Lewis says that the guy who leaked the information is already gone.

 

Hmmm.  On Friday, Lewis speaks in terms indicating that a guy who is currently with the team will be cut loose.  On Monday, he suggests that the problem has been solved.

 

"It's already taken care of," Lewis  told USA Today on Monday.  "He's already gone."  

 

Why the change?  Lewis, we believe, realizes that he can't dump a guy for leaking locker room information.  The CBA prevents cutting a player for disciplinary reasons (see Quincy Carter), and the Bengals could be forced to pay the player's (players'?) salary for 2006 if Lewis would cut him (them?) for giving info to yours truly regarding Chad's temper tantrum.   

 

So Lewis apparently has decided to pretend that the leaker was a player whose contract has expired.  We believe Lewis will now do his Sherlock Holmes routine quietly, and if Lewis ever figures out who blabbed he'll cut the guy without linking him to the leak, in order to avoid a union grievance.

 

Though we haven't, won't, and never will talk about our unnamed sources, wouldn't it be hilarious if Lewis ultimately concludes that the leak originated with quarterback Carson Palmer?

 

RANDLE EL REALIZES LESS COULD BE MORE

 

Steelers receiver Antwaan Randle El, the darling of Super Bowl XL who soon could cash in via free agency even under the restrictive terms of the current CBA, possibly has studied the examples of past Super Bowl Cinderellas like Larry Brown and Desmond Howard.

 

Both parlayed their success in the ultimate football spotlight into big contracts, and both fizzled in their new homes.

 

Maybe that's why Randle El now says he'd take less money to stay in Pittsburgh, with the Steelers.

 

"If [the Steelers] are a million dollars off, that's not enough to make me leave," Randle El said, according to The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.  "If I'm the No. 2 receiver and the punt returner, and, certainly, I have the opportunity to play, then a million-dollar difference won't make me leave here.  Why would I want to move my family if I didn't have to?" 

 

The problem, however, is that even without an extended CBA the total package offered to Randle El likely will be more than $1 million greater than Pittsburgh's best offer.  We've also heard that the Steelers don't necessarily regard Randle El as a solid No. 2 receiver -- which might have something to do with the fact that the Steelers will in the end offer much less than other teams might.

 

Those interested in Randle El reportedly include the Bears, Redskins, and Eagles.  (They might not be as interested as Randle El hopes, however, if he continues to mention the contract Reggie Wayne recently signed with the Colts, which included a $13.5 million signing bonus.)

 

Our guess?  Randle El won't be back in Pittsburgh.  The team can draft a new punt returner, or they can give Ricardo Colclough a try.  As to filling El's spot on the offensive depth chart, there are plenty of options for replacing a guy who caught less than 40 passes a year ago -- and he ain't the only non-quarterback on the team who can throw the ball once in a while.

 

Still, if he leaves it'd be a shame.  This new generation of Super Bowl-winning Steelers will spawn another wave of players who will be set up financially after they quit playing, if they stay with the team until they retire.  Antwaan, in our opinion, should try to look 20 years down the road before becoming just another guy who bounces from team to team.

 

Twenty years from now, he'll probably be wishing he had.