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Several readers have advised us of rumors that free agent linebacker LaVar Arrington was seen on Sunday at the airport in Philadelphia.  This, of course, has prompted speculation that Arrington will be meeting with the Eagles.

A league source tells us that, if Arrington is in Philly, it's not to meet with the local NFL team.  We're also told that the Eagles won't be interested in Arrington until his price tag drops significantly.

Moreover, it's unlikely that the Eagles would host such a high-profile guy on Sunday or Monday, since at least several of the team's upper management is in Florida for the ownership meetings, or on their way there.

In hindsight, it appears that Arrington and his agents have committed yet another major blunder in forfeiting $4.4 million in earned but deferred signing bonus money so that Arrington could hit the market during the early stages of free agency, when the big money is flowing.

Three weeks later, Arrington is still trying to make back that $4.4 million, which he would have gotten to keep if he'd merely forced the Redskins to release him before a $6.5 million roster bonus came due in July.

As a result, we've got a feeling that the decision of agents Carl and Kevin Poston to try to represent two elite linebackers who entered the open market at the same time will eventually cause Arrington to cry foul.  We're convinced that Arrington regards the recent contract signed by linebacker Julian Peterson with the Seahawks as the floor for his own deal -- not the ceiling.  But as more and more time passes, it will be even harder for Arrington to match the money Peterson got paid.  Indeed, teams with needs at the linebacker position who address them in the draft will be less inclined to pay to Arrington the kind of money that they might now offer.

Eventually, Arrington might point a finger at his agents and say, "Why didn't you get me the deal with Seattle that Peterson got?"  And if the response is that the Postons could have gotten Arrington that deal instead of Peterson but Arrington didn't want it, the Postons had better have clear documentation of that fact if/when the fudge hits the fan.

While scouring the web on Sunday night in search of something/anything that might be going on in the NFL as the powers-that-be convene in Florida for the ownership meetings, we came across an item on NFL.com posted by national editor Vic Carucci.

In the piece, Carucci identifies the five best teams to date in free agency. 

And his No. 1 team is the Cleveland Browns.

This, of course, sounded our official bullcrap alarm, given that Carucci has been moonlighting as the "Vice President of New Media and Publishing" of the Browns.  On December 30, we pointed out the inherent conflict of interest arising from this dual role, which to our knowledge never was disclosed in a footnote or otherwise in his work for the league's official web site.

But when we went back to the front office page of the Browns' web site, which previously identified Carucci as a member of the team's "Senior Management," we couldn't find any reference to him -- or to his title.

So we tapped our network of industry sources, and we learned that Carucci recently resigned, within the past week or so, his job with the team.

It was long overdue, in our opinion.  Regardless of whether Carucci's work for NFL.com was or was not tainted by his relationship with the Browns, there was an appearance that his work could have been biased in favor of the team -- or against its foes -- especially since his role was at no time made clear by NFL.com.

Though we don't know why Carucci stood down, it's good that he finally did.  Then again, we think he never should have taken the job in the first place. 

Bengals coach Marvin Lewis is now a voting member of the competition committee (we think that his first proposal will be to authorize the use of polygraph testing for players who are suspected of blabbing about matters occurring within the locker room).

Bengals president Mike Brown admits that he is considering the possibility of selling the naming rights to Paul Brown Stadium (but, Mike, selling the rights to yourself for $1.99 a year doesn't count).

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has accepted the apology of former St. Louis radio host Dave Lenihan for the supposedly inadvertent racial slur that he made while discussing her candidacy for the position of NFL Commissioner.

Possible candidates for the committee that will select the next Commissioner are Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, Pats, owner Bob Kraft, Texans owner Bob McNair, Jags owner Wayne Weaver, Raiders president Amy Trask, and John Mara of the Giants.

The Dolphins' decision to bring in Uncle Rico is creating a buzz in South Florida and beyond.

WR David Terrell could see more playing time in 2006 with the Broncos.

There's no surer proof that free agency has slowed down than when the signing of a third-down back who's otherwise No. 3 on the depth chart is the lead item on this, or any, site.

A league source tells us that the Steelers have re-signed running back Verron Haynes to a two-year deal.

Per the source, Haynes receives a signing bonus of $325,000 on a contract with a total value of $1.6 million.

Haynes was a fifth-round draft pick of the Steelers in 2002.  He played in 14 games in 2005, rushing for 274 yards on 74 carries and catching 11 passes for 113 yards.  He ran for three touchdowns.

High praise for Meshawn.

One defensive player per team might have a radio in his helmet beginning in 2006.

Panthers DT Kris Jenkins says that he'll be running on Monday (but only if the ice cream truck doesn't stop).

With Keyshawn Johnson in Carolina, WR Ricky Proehl's days as a Panther could be over.

The Bucs will be facing a beefed-up NFC South this year.

DT Grady Jackson would like to land in the NFC North, so he could play the Packers twice a year.

The Dolphins made a serious run at FB Mack Strong before signing Fred Beasley.

Some Falcons employees call G.M. Rich McKay "the King" (others around the league refer to him with another four-letter word, the second of which also is an "i").

T.O.'s middle name apparently is "Eldorado."

Former Cowboys S George Teague, who knocked T.O. off of the star in 2000, wishes that his old team hadn't signed Owens.

If voters don't approve a sales tax measure on April 4, the Chiefs could be headed to Los Angeles.

The Packers will bring in LB Barrett Green for a visit.

The Green Bay Packers have re-signed running back Najeh "Dookie" Davenport to a one-year deal.

Davenport, taken by the Packers in the fourth round of the 2002 draft, was an unrestricted free agent.  He had visited the Dolphins and the Raiders before returning to Green Bay under a one-year contract.

A broken ankle suffered last season undoubtedly contributed to the short-term nature of the deal, with Davenport now hopeful he can prove that he is recovered -- and cash in with the Packers or on the open market in 2007.

For the Packers, the move means that the 2005 backfield will be returning, virtually intact.  Tailback Ahman Green and fullback William Henderson have re-signed.  Only Tony Fisher has departed. 

Then again, the Packers hold all of the cards when it comes to Green and Davenport.  Either can be released prior to the Packers' first game, which would enable the Packers to avoid paying their base salaries.

Since the details of Davenport's contract have not yet been released, it's safe to assume that he'll sign for something at or close to the one-year minimum, with a signing bonus likely in the neighborhood of $40,000.

Last year, Davenport was a restricted free agent, tendered at the lowest level of $656,000.  He eventually signed a one-year deal for $15,000 less than the tender in order to get a $100,000 advance.  As one league source surmised at the time, Davenport was likely "living like a first rounder," and had run out of money.

Davenport will always be a favorite of this here site, due to his inexplicable decision to drop trou (and then something else) in the hamper of a woman's dorm room in Miami -- while she was in the room sleeping. 

At the ownership meetings in Florida this week, Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt plans to push, again, for an expansion of the postseason field from 12 to 14 teams.  Coincidentally (or not), the Chiefs would have qualified for the playoffs if one extra team per conference had been added to the 2005 slate of teams.

In all fairness, however, the Chiefs have been pushing for this change for several years now, and this is the first time that they've finished as the seventh seed in the AFC since 1999.

Regardless of the motivation, we disagree with the proposal.  Adding another team would require the No. 2 seed in each conference to win two games in order to qualify for the conference championship, leaving the No. 1 seed as the only team in each conference with a bye, and the one-game path to the title contest that goes along with it.  Moreover, even if the two seed qualifies for the conference championship game, forcing it to play two games to get there could make the title game less competitive, since the second seed could be depleted through injuries and/or wear-and-tear.

Of course, all of this presumes that the No. 1 team will win its divisional round game.  But since the NFL moved to six playoff teams per conference, the top seed is 27-5 in the game played after the first-round bye.

The No. 2 seed, in turn, is 25-7 in the divisional round.  But that number is sure to go down if the second-place team has to play two games in order to make it to the championship round.

So the end result of such a move will be the addition of two extra games in the wild card round -- and the dilution of the conference title games.

Looking at this from a business perspective, why throw two more playoff games per year into the current television contract, unless the networks are willing to pay extra for them?  If the NFL is ever going to expand the playoff field, the best time to do is it in conjunction with negotiations for a new television contract.

Depending on the precise language of the current deals, it's possible that the league could add two playoff games now, and retain the ability to broadcast them on the NFL Network.  But networks counting on the late Sunday afternoon playoff game as a lead-in for evening programming wouldn't be happy at all with a big chunk of the football-watching audience changing channels to the night cap on the NFL Network.

There was plenty of misinformation in the media regarding the rules that applied to the efforts of the New York Jets to trade defensive end John Abraham.  Some journalists suggested that, given Abraham's status as the team's franchise player, there was a specific deadline for a trade.  Others suggested that there was a looming deadline by which Abraham could receive offers from other teams.

Here's a quick summary of the relevant rules, as amended by the new CBA.

The Jets could have signed Abraham to a long-term deal, and kept him with the team, at any time.  If they had done so prior to March 25 or after July 15, they would have been able to use the franchise designation again in 2007.  If they had done so after March 25 but before July 15, they would have lost the franchise designation for 2007 only.  (Under the old CBA, the Jets would have forfeited the ability to utilize the franchise designation for the life of the deal.  The new CBA amended that rule.)

Abraham could have entertained offers from other teams through July 15 or the date on which the first training camp opens, whichever is later.  Of course, any offer sheet that Abraham signed would have required the new team to send two first-round picks to the Jets as compensation, if the Jets didn't opt to match the deal (and opt to match they wouldn't have done).

Here's the key -- the Jets could have signed Abraham to a long-term deal and traded him to a new team at any time, with no loss of the franchise tag in 2007 if he was traded on the same day that he signed the long-term deal.

Pats OL Dan Koppen suffered a torn rotator cuff in November.

Former Pats LB Willie McGinest reportedly steered K Adam Vinatieri to agent Gary Uberstine, who apparently was trying to place Vinatieri with the Colts while Vinatieri was still being represented by Neil Cornrich's group; it's being speculated that McGinest might get a cut of Uberstine's fee.

QB Drew Bledsoe has said that he basically plans to tell T.O. to shut up if he starts running his mouth (yeah, this is gonna work real well).

More talking from Vikings coach Brad Childress.

Dead money is tying the hands of the Bucs in free agency.

The Titans flew three of their receivers to Austin to catch passes on Thursday from Uncle Rico.

Texans owner Bob McNair has suggested splitting the Commissioner position into two jobs, with one guy running the football side and another guy running the business side (but who gets to give the boring speeches?).

The Jags had a "good meeting" with LB LaVar Arrington on Saturday.

Says Fins coach Nick Saban:  "I'm excited about the upcoming season because we have a good nucleus of players with a great attitude."

Jackie Chiles plans to throw some of his draft picks right onto the field.

Compensatory draft picks for 2005 free agent losses will be announced in conjunction with the ownership meetings (the Broncos are hoping for an extra third-rounder that they could then use on Marcus Vick).

The Chiefs and Raiders are interested in CB Lenny Walls, who is recovered from a groin injury that hampered him in 2005.

To add to the confusion regarding Uncle Rico's pro day workout, Ron Borges of the Boston Globe says that Rico ran a 4.58 on a slow track -- Chris Mortensen of ESPN previously called it a fast track.

Former Bills QB Jim Kelly is hoping that his old team can find some stability at the position he used to play.

Rams LB Dexter Coakley realizes that he's going to have to scratch and claw for playing time.

Uncle Rico will have private workouts with the Ravens, Jets, Texans, and Dolphins.

Will it be easy to replace the Commish?  Pats owner Bob Kraft doesn't think so.  "I know it's going to be very, very hard and it's going to require people who care about the league to be patient and understanding and make sure that we are being very thorough," Kraft said. "It's not going to be easy to fill this job."

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