The Virginian-Pilot reports
that federal prosecutors
have offered to Mike Vick a plea deal that will include a recommendation of
a sentence of at least one year in prison.
Vick has until 9:00 a.m. EDT on
Friday, August 17 to accept the deal, or to face additional charges.
There were reports on Tuesday that
Vick's lawyers wanted a deal that would entail less than one year in jail.
Earlier on Wednesday, a report emerged that Vick's legal team is divided on
whether he should plead guilty. Our take on that specific information leak
is that the Vick P.R. machine (to the extent that there even is one)
realizes that news of such a split is necessary to support the eventual
conclusion that Vick didn't do it.
Dave Forster of the
Virginian-Pilot explained on MSNBC moments ago that Vick would be required
to plead guilty to the pending conspiracy charges, which include conspiracy to
maintain an interstate gambling operation and conspiracy to engage in interstate
dog fighting.
LEAGUE WON'T PLAY "LET'S MAKE A
DEAL"
Though Mike Vick's lawyers had
been shooting for a plea deal that would entail less than a year of jail for
Vick and a negotiated suspension with the NFL that would allow Vick to return to
pro football, Chris Mortensen of ESPN reports that Commissioner
Roger Goodell
"refuses" to engage in such negotiations.
Instead, the league will continue
with its own investigation, and will also monitor developments in court.
If Vick pleads guilty to
conspiracy charges based on interstate gambling, he could be on the wrong end of
a lifetime ban from the NFL.
Then again, the Commish probably
doesn't need to go that far. We simply can't imagine any team hoping to
make more money than it spends choosing to give Vick a chance to return to the
NFL. Ever.
PLAYERS CAN'T CLAIM IGNORANCE
OF GAMBLING POLICY
A reader who recently toured the
Heinz Field locker rooms tells us that both the home team and the visiting team
dressing areas display a notice explaining the NFL's gambling policy.
The reader sent us a photo of the
notice. Here it is.
Several readers have asked us why
NFL players can go to casinos, where they presumably do things other than beat
each other up. The distinction apparently is that legal casino gambling
does not constitute "[a]ssociating with gamblers or with gambling activities in
a manner tending to bring discredit to the NFL."
Gambling incident to dog fighting,
we suspect, is another story.
The signing of Revis, a speedy
cornerback out of Pittsburgh whom the Jets traded up to select with the 14th
overall pick, comes after a lengthy contract dispute in which the Jets insisted
that they would only agree to a six-year contract, and the Revis camp insisted
that they would only agree to a five-year deal. So far there is no word on which
side capitulated on the length of the contract, or on any of the financial
terms.
Revis missed the first 19 days of
training camp as a result of the contract dispute. He also missed the first
preseason game and presumably won't be ready for the Jets' second preseason
game, Friday night against the Vikings.
Revis probably won't be ready to
start at cornerback Week 1, but he's a skilled special teams player and will be
expected to contribute immediately in the kicking game.
Cimini reports that the Jets are
arranging a news conference at their Hofstra headquarters to make the official
announcement.
The signing leaves Raiders
quarterback JaMarcus Russell as the NFL's lone rookie holdout.
POSTED 4:05 p.m. EDT, August 15, 2007
BOTH MCDOUGLE BROTHERS
OUT FOR SEASON
by
Michael David Smith
In a cruel twist of fate, NFL
brothers Stockar and Jerome McDougle both sustained season-ending injuries on
Monday.
Stockar, a guard and tackle for
the Jaguars,
suffered a ruptured left Achilles tendon during practice Monday night. The
Jaguars confirmed the severity of the injury yesterday.
Stockar was the Lions' first-round
pick in 2000, and he played five years in Detroit before spending 2005 in Miami
and 2006 in Jacksonville.
Jerome, a defensive end for the
Eagles, suffered a
right triceps injury during Philadelphia's preseason game Monday night in
Baltimore. The Eagles said today that he's expected to miss the season.
Jerome was the Eagles' first-round
pick in 2003, and he's had a star-crossed career. He was shot just before
training camp started in 2005 and missed the entire 2005 season and the start of
the 2006 season as a result. He also missed portions of his rookie year with
knee, ankle and hip injuries, and portions of his second year with a knee injury
and an irregular heartbeat.
POSTED 3:26 p.m. EDT, August 15, 2007
PACMAN TO RELEASE HIP-HOP
SINGLE
by Michael David Smith
Showing yet again that he just
doesn't get it and never will, suspended Titans cornerback Pacman Jones says he
will release a hip-hop single about "stones,
big money and cars."
Jones provides the financing for a
record label called National Street League Records (MySpace
page here), and that label announced that he will team with a producer named
Spoaty in a duo called "Posterboyz" with their first single "Let it Shine,"
which will be released Aug. 27. An album is due to be released in 2008,
according to a news release.
"Looking from the outside in, I
have been the example for many to see the poster child if you will; and from
that sentiment the 'Posterboyz' group name was born," Jones said in a statement,
according to the Associated Press.
When NFL Commissioner Roger
Goodell suspended Jones for the 2007 season, the commish said he would leave
open the possibility of reinstating Jones after the Titans' 10th game, if Jones
conducted himself in a way that reflected well on himself and the league.
Instead, Jones has been giving interviews in which he comes across like an
idiot, engaging in lame pro wrestling stunts, and talking about how
he didn't really mean it when he said he would go back to school to get his
college degree.
Pacman had better write all his
songs about "big money" now. He won't have big money much longer.
POSTED 12:36 p.m. EDT, August 15, 2007
DEANGELO HALL COULD
TESTIFY
by
Michael David Smith
PFT Editor Mike Florio has checked
in to report that he's hearing from sources with knowledge of the investigation
that cornerback DeAngelo Hall could be the Falcons player called to testify if
quarterback Michael Vick goes on trial.
We previously noted that CBS 46 in
Atlanta is reporting that an unnamed teammate of Vick's, described as "a
prominent member of the team," could testify if Vick chooses to face a trial
rather than plead guilty.
Vick and Hall grew up in the same
area of Virginia, and both attended Virginia Tech. Vick is three years older
than Hall, and Hall has described Vick as a role model.
In an interview with the
Associated Press shortly after Vick was indicted, Hall said, "Mike
became Mike at Virginia Tech. ... Just seeing him in college, seeing him
grow and mature as a player, it was a beautiful thing. It’s one of the reasons I
decided to go to Tech.”
POSTED 12:06 p.m. EDT, August 15, 2007
BULLOCK PLANNING
PRESEASON PAYBACK?
by
Michael David Smith
Titans linebacker Keith Bulluck is
still hopping mad, eight months later, about the Titans' Week 17 loss to the
Patriots.
In that game, New England put in
quarterback Vinny Testaverde and had him throw a touchdown pass with 1:45
remaining and the Patriots comfortably ahead. Afterward, Patriots receiver Reche
Caldwell celebrated on the field.
"Just the way they were acting
after the game kind of irked me," Bulluck said. "A couple of the guys on the
team weren't being too professional. It is only a preseason game, but 87 [Reche
Caldwell] needs to keep his head on a swivel, that's all I've got to say."
Bulluck then proceeded to show
that he actually had more to say: "He is probably the sixth receiver, so I don't
even know if he'll be in when I'm in. If he is, I'll know, trust me."
Of course, if you're really
planning to lay a guy out on the field, the worst possible thing to do is inform
him of your plans ahead of time. And even if Bulluck is the type of guy who
would deliver a cheap shot in a preseason game because he's mad about something
that happened the year before, he can't possibly be stupid enough to announce
that publicly. More than an indication that Bulluck will go after Caldwell
Friday, this is a demonstration of the way NFL players use perceived slights to
motivate themselves.
POSTED 9:20 a.m. EDT;
LAST UPDATED 10:17 a.m. EDT, August 15, 2007
FALCONS TEAMMATE TO
TESTIFY IN VICK CASE?
by
Michael David Smith
CBS 46 does not identify the
teammate, other than to call him "a prominent member of the team." The report
says the Falcons are aware of this angle to the story. It is not clear whether
the teammate would be a prosecution or defense witness.
If it's true that another Falcon
would be one of the witnesses, the NFL and Falcons owner Arthur Blank must be
hoping Vick pleads guilty. Even if the teammate did nothing wrong and would
testify truthfully about something he saw Vick do, the last thing they want is
more players dragged into this mess.
CBS 46 is also reporting that
Vick’s defense team is divided over whether Vick should plead guilty.
According to the report, sources
on Tuesday told Gil Tyree of CBS 46 that one part of the defense team wants to
reach a deal with prosecutors, while the other wants to go to trial.
WEDNESDAY MORNING
TRAINING CAMP ONE-LINERS
by
Michael David Smith
Australian punter
Sav Rocca got drilled in his first NFL preseason game, but he shrugged it
off afterward and said, "If that's the best he's got,
good luck to him."
PETRINO'S PRIVATE NUMBER WAS
FOUND AT VICK'S VIRGINIA HOUSE
A source with knowledge of the
Mike Vick investigation has shared with us some previously unknown details about
the situation.
Here's the kicker, in our view.
The feds' initial search of Mike Vick's house in Virginia turned up Falcons
coach Bobby Petrino's private phone number. The implication is obvious --
Vick goes to the property, and had been there this year, because Petrino was
hired in January 2007.
Compare that nugget to Vick's only
comments on the matter: "I never go there."
Also, the second federal search of
the Vick property in Surry County was aimed at confirming the reliability and
credibility of the informants. The dog carcasses found on the second dig
meshed with information given regarding the means of death; thus, an indictment
was obtained 10 days later.
SO WHO BOUGHT VICK'S HOUSE?
Once of the details that has
gotten lost in the shuffle during the past month or so since Mike Vick was
indicted on federal conspiracy charges is the sale of his property in Surry
County, Virginia, which apparently was never consummated.
A local business owner said that "heads
will turn" when the identity of the new owner is revealed.
It has never happened.
So who was it?
We've picked up some information
in this regard, but aren't quite ready to reveal the name. We might
ultimately have to hand it over to someone from the "real" media who is in a
position to confirm it.
But, yeah, heads will turn if what
we're hearing ends up being true.
ARE THERE FOLKS AT ESPN WHO
FEAR THE "G" WORD?
As we continue to monitor ESPN's
handling of the Mike Vick prosecution, we continue to see entire segments
devoted to the case that mention not once the fact that the more serious charge
that Vick presently faces is the claim that he conspired to maintain an
interstate gambling operation.
Just now on Man-Girl & Meatball
in the Morning (also known as "Mike and Mike"), Mike Greenberg and Michael
Smith (who should replace one of the two Mikes permanently, in our view) talked
at length with Roger Cossack about the possibility of a plea deal.
The word "gambling" wasn't uttered
once.
At one point, one of the Mikes
asked Cossack what Vick would be pleading guilty to if he does a deal. In
his response, Cossack seemed to be deliberately avoiding the fact that
conspiracy to maintain an interstate gambling enterprise is one of the three
statutes that Vick allegedly conspired to violate -- and thus one of only three
things to which we could plead guilty.
Also, there was no mention of the
fact that Vick's biggest risk in refusing to accept a plea is that a new
indictment will charge him with the underlying crime of interstate gambling,
which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. Because dog fighting was a
mere misdemeanor at the time all of this went down, those charges have a maximum
sentence of only one year behind bars.
And, amazingly, a detailed graphic
shown during the Cossack interview that attempted to summarize the charges did
not contain the word "gambling."
With that said, we're told that
there have been some references to the gambling angle on ESPN. For
example, Chris Berman talked about the gambling aspect of the situation on
Monday Night Countdown this week.
Still, we're getting the distinct
impression that there are producers and on-air talent in Bristol who have
decided that it's not in their best interests to mention the "G" word in this
case.
But now that the Commissioner has
acknowledged the league's concern about the gambling aspect (which we continue
to hear is far more important to the federal government than the dog-fighting
component), why does any portion of the "real" media feel compelled not to
mention the gambling?
We can think of two possible
reasons. First, the gambling side of it isn't as sexy as the dog fighting.
But even if that's the case, wouldn't the gambling at least be mentioned?
Second, the powers-that-be at ESPN
know that a certain segment of the audience that drives the rating points (and
thus the advertising dollars and cable subscriber fees) is watching in order to
obtain information that will assist their own gambling activities. So if
the folks on the air are talking about how easy it is for anyone to establish an
illegal interstate gambling operation based on any type of gambling
(including betting on the sports that ESPN covers), some of the members of the
audience who are currently participating in illegal interstate gambling
operations might get scared straight.
And then have no further reason to
watch ESPN.
Cynical? Yes.
Realistic? You decide.
Before folks start filling up our
in box with e-mails reminding us that ESPN has been covering the Tim Donaghy
case, keep in mind that there's no way to cover that story without talking about
the gambling. Also, the moral of the Donaghy story is that refs shouldn't
bet on the sports that they cover; there's a subtle implication in that message
that it's okay for all of the non-refs out there to put money down on the sports
that they follow.
Regardless of the reason, this is
one of the strangest journalistic phenomena we have ever seen. And if the
gambling angle hasn't been overlooked by plenty of folks at ESPN for a specific
reason, then the only explanation is that Emmitt Smith isn't the only complete
ignoramus on the payroll.
"I'll do whatever I have to do,"
Simms said. "If I have to sit out a year, I'm totally prepared for it.
I really am. I have a long, long career in front of me."
Though Simms' words might be the
result of indications he has received from the coaching staff and/or the front
office, we think there's a chance that the Bucs will decide in the end to place
Simms on injured reserve. Simms is an extremely sympathetic figure in
Tampa, and the notion that the team would sever ties with a guy who gave his
spleen (and nearly more) for the cause might not be well received by the fan
base.
Just last week, the Bucs placed
fullback Mike Alstott on injured reserve, despite indications that he was being
pushed to retire. At the end of the day, ownership opted to give Alstott a
one-year scholarship in exchange for years of loyal service. Though Simms
doesn't have the same tenure as the A-Train, Simms' circumstances might justify
giving him a paid year to get himself right.
Actually, Simms' stated intention
to sit out the year could be a shot across the front office's bow. If
Simms is released while still injured, he could argue that the team should be
required to pay him his entire 2007 base salary, and his desire to take the
entire year off means that the Bucs' liability wouldn't be cut short when he
signs with a new franchise.
Though management has rejected the
notion that Simms' current struggles arise from his splenectomy, Simms makes
fairly clear his belief that his current problems trace back to that fateful
Sunday in September 2006.
"As far as the injury that I had,
there's only been one player in the history of NFL who has had it," Simms said.
"I don't know who it was. It was somebody in the 1970s and that's the only
one I ever heard of – and he wasn't a quarterback. That's a whole
different game in itself. To be a good thrower, you have to use your whole
torso."
The fact that Simms passed a
pre-training camp physical could make it difficult for Simms to claim that he
was cut while injured, but that would put the team in the awkward position of
having to argue that Simms' nosedive in 2007 wasn't the result of a health
condition, but because he suddenly sucks.
Bottom line -- with $2 million in
base salary at issue, we have a feeling that there's more to this issue than
meets the eye.
THE NEW JOEY SUNSHINE?
We've pointed out from time to
time errors made by Pat Kirwan, a former front-office employee who can't and
won't get another job with an NFL team until his good pal Pete Carroll returns
to the level of the sport where both the starters and the backups are
paid.
But Kirwan has now taken his
performance to Thiesmannesque levels by proclaiming that Lions quarterback Jon
Kitna will throw for 5,000 yards in 2007.
Putting that in perspective, Kitna
would be only the second guy in NFL history to throw for more than 5,000 yards
in one season. Dan Marino, in 1984, notched 5,084 yards.
"After watching their three- and
four-wideout packages with Roy Williams, Calvin Johnson, Mike Furrey and Shaun
McDonald," Kirwan said, "the one thing that looked clear to me is
Kitna is on his way to a 5,000-yard season."
We've got nothing personal against
Kirwan. He seems to know when to throw out certain NFL buzzwords that give
him credibility with players and coaches, and he presumably gets paid fairly
well to talk and write about football. But attention to detail, in our
opinion, isn't one of his strong suits, and his decision to throw out a level
that only one guy has ever reached rivals even the most shiny of all Joey
Sunshine statements.
POSTED 10:55
p.m. EDT, August 14, 2007
VICK'S LAWYERS INCLUDING LEAGUE
IN PLEA TALKS?
In an updated item on its web
site, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution suggests that Mike Vick's legal
team is trying not only to secure a prison stay of less than a year,
but also to salvage Vick's NFL career.
The AJC points out that
such an approach would require the NFL's involvement, since the league's
disciplinary process is independent of the legal system. But it's unclear
whether the league is inclined to participate in any such deal.
The only thing that the league
would have to gain from such an approach would be to ensure that Vick doesn't
blow the lid off of a suspected dog-fighting subculture among NFL players.
Instead, Vick would plead guilty, keep his mouth shut, do his time, and return
to the NFL at the end of a suspension of agreed length.
But even if the league were to
consent to, for example, a one-year suspension to be served during the one year
that Vick is in prison, that doesn't mean that he'd ultimately get a gig with
another team.
Though we love redemption stories
(see Albert, Marv), Vick allegedly killed Lassie. Multiple Lassies,
actually. Can any NFL team justify bringing this guy on board, ever?
Our guess (hope) is that the
league will, in the end, refuse to enter into any deals with Vick. Mike
made this mess, for himself and for the league. The league shouldn't now
help him get the lightest possible penalty for his actions.
In addition to the NFL, it also
would be wise for the Vick team to be talking to Virginia authorities about
joining in any agreement with the feds. Even if Vick pleads guilty to
pending federal charges, he still faces multiple possible counts of animal
cruelty under Virginia law. And those potential charges apply regardless
of the outcome of the federal charges.
POSTED 8:44
p.m. EDT; LAST UPDATED 10:04 p.m. EDT, August 14, 2007
JETS, REVIS PLAYING NICE
After weeks of impasse over the
length of the rookie contract offered to cornerback Darrelle Revis, it looks
like the Jets and the player are making progress.
At a minimum, they are talking --
and jointly talking about the fact that they are talking. About talking.
"We are working hard to reach an
agreement and
we
will continue working as long as it takes to get the deal done," said Jets
G.M. Mike Tannenbaum and the agents for Revis, Neil Schwartz and Jonathan
Feinsod, in an unusual joint statement. "We are planning on meeting
through the night and our intent is to meet until an agreement has been
reached."
We recently pointed out that,
despite the team's insistence on a six-year deal, the Jets have a history of
using five-year deals for first-round players not selected in the top ten.
Revis was the No. 14 overall selection in the draft, and by rule the Jets may
insist on a six-year deal. But all other players drafted in the vicinity
have signed five-year contracts, or six-year deals that easily void to five-year
packages.
Our guess? It will be a
six-year deal with reasonably reachable escalators that will make the
compensation in years five and six so high that the team's only option will be
to sign Revis to a long-term deal, or release him. This will allow the
team to avoid creating the perception that it blinked, and it will allow the
agents to beat back any attacks on their 2008 recruiting efforts arising from
the decision to commit Revis for six seasons.
NO. 24 IS UP
Another day, another team added to
our preseason power rankings.
ESPN reports that the lawyers
representing exiled Falcons quarterback Mike Vick want to secure for their
client jail time of
less than one year
in exchange for a guilty plea.
ESPN also reports that the lawyers
have recommended that Vick accept the deal, if it entails less than a year
behind bars.
It's a great deal, if Vick can get
it -- and if the judge approves it. But the non-prison fallout would be
significant. Vick would likely owe the Falcons, as we've reported, more
than $28 million in previously paid bonus money. He would receive a stiff
suspension from the NFL, and possibly a lifetime ban if he pleads guilty to
conspiracy to maintain an interstate gambling enterprise.
Even with a suspension of only one
year, Vick would remain radioactive. The Falcons came under heavy fire
from animal rights groups for employing Vick after an indictment was filed;
if/when Vick pleads guilty to charges relating to dog fighting, any team that
even considers bringing Vick on board would become an instant target of derision
from the dog-loving public.
Considering the situation from a
football perspective, what team would want to bring a rusty Vick on board as a
starting quarterback? He has regressed over the past few seasons, and
there's no reason to think that a year or so in prison will make him better.
He's also a terrible option as a
backup quarterback, since the team would need to have a Vick clone as the
starter in order to justify such a move. Otherwise, the coaching staff
would need one playbook for Vick, and another playbook for the "real"
quarterback.
In the end, Vick's only value
might come as a Devin Hester-style player who gets the ball in his hands in
traffic, and makes things happen. But Vick is no spring chicken, and the
legs might start to go not long after he would be reinstated to the NFL,
assuming that he ever is.
WHERE'S LEN?
A reader and our own MDS raised a
great point today.
Why hasn't ESPN.com's Len
Pasquarelli had anything to say about Mike Vick in the past day or so?
It could be that, try as he might,
Len has simply been unable to conjure any positive spin to place on the latest
negative development for Vick. But this is the same guy who described the
day that the feds returned to Vick property to dig up more dog carcasses as a
"respite," given the ESPN.com report that the Falcons didn't expect Vick to be
indicted.
Maybe Len eventually will argue
that the guilty pleas of the remaining defendants is a good thing because it
will give Mike more elbow room at the counsel table during the trial.
It's a no-brainer, we think, for
Vick to cop a plea. Barring evidence that would clearly exonerate him, the
risks of fighting the current (and coming) charges are too great.
As it now stands, Vick faces up to
six years on federal conspiracy charges. If a new indictment includes
counts based on the statutes that, for now, he is merely charged with conspiring
to violate, the maximum prison time would be pushed to 27 years, if the terms
run consecutively. Even if all of the terms run concurrently, the
worst-case scenario would be 20 years.
There's also a real benefit to
accepting guilt early. Under the federal sentencing guidelines, coming
clean quickly is a factor that pushes the sentence down.
Then again, the fact that Vick
will be pleading out only after the other three defendants opted to do so might
not get him the full benefit of his decision to acknowledge his responsibility
for the crimes.
Our guess is that the prosecutors
have laid out enough evidence for Vick's lawyers to persuade them that there's
no way out of this shrinking box, and that the lawyers and other Vick handlers
are trying to get him to come to grips with the reality that it's in his overall
best interests to accept certain jail time.
Maybe, as one reader pointed out,
part of what Vick can bring to the bargaining table is a willingness to name
names as to all persons (including NFL players and, perhaps, elected officials)
who were involved in dog fighting and/or attended dog fights. Given that a
couple of Vick's long-time friends are now willing to snitch on him, Mike might
decide that it's time to snitch on everyone.
POSTED 1:53 p.m. EDT, August 14, 2007
WILL PORTER PLAY THE OPENER? by
Michael David Smith
Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter
had arthroscopic knee surgery last week, and on Tuesday Jeff Darlington of the
Miami Herald reports that
Porter might not be
ready for the regular-season opener on September 9.
Coach Cam Cameron on Monday seemed
to back off his previous statement that Porter will be ready to go in time for
the Dolphins' Week 1 game against the Redskins, saying, ''I think we all need to
be careful setting deadlines. . . . [T]here's no way that any of us are going to
jump up there and predict when he's going to be healthy."
Even if Porter is healthy in time for the start of the regular season, he'll
have missed a lot of practice reps and the entire preseason, which can't help as
he tries to get acclimated to defensive coordinator Dom Capers' system. Although
Porter played in a similar defense in Pittsburgh, the Dolphins can't like the
fact that the man they signed to a contract with $20 million guaranteed is
limited to sitting in meetings and riding a stationary bike.
Porter has now had arthroscopic
surgery on his right knee twice in the last 15 months. As was mentioned in a
recent installment of PFTV, this is the second consecutive year that the
Dolphins made a big off-season acquisition, only to find out that the player
they acquired had a bum knee. Last year it became clear shortly after
quarterback Daunte Culpepper arrived that his knee was in worse shape than the
team's medical staff initially thought. If the same is true of Porter this year,
you can bet that the Dolphins will get someone else to conduct their physical
exams next year.
POSTED 11:28 a.m. EDT, August 14, 2007
PEPPERS NOT TALKING CONTRACT
EXTENSION by Michael David
Smith
After Colts defensive end Dwight
Freeney signed a six-year contract that guaranteed him $30 million and made him
the league's highest-paid defensive player, many league observers thought
Panthers defensive end Julius Peppers would be next in line.
But Peppers doesn't sound like
he's in any hurry to get a deal done.
If Freeney is worth $12 million a
year, Peppers is worth at least that much. Both players entered the league in
2002 and have been essentially equal as pass rushers -- Freeney has 56.5 career
sacks; Peppers has 53.5 -- but Peppers is generally acknowledged as the superior
player against the run.
Of course, Freeney had the
leverage that comes with playing out his contract. Peppers has two years left on
his deal and is scheduled to make more than $16.5 million. Maybe that's why he
tells Yasinskas a new contract is "something I haven't thought a lot about."
BUBBA FRANKS ON THE WAY OUT?
by Michael David Smith
Rob Demovsky of the Green Bay
Press-Gazette reports that not only will Packers tight end Bubba Franks not
regain his starting job, but there's a chance that
he won't even make the Packers' 53-man roster.
That's quite a fall for the
29-year-old Franks, who was the Packers' first-round draft pick in 2000 and was
selected to the Pro Bowl in 2001, 2002, and 2003.
But Demovsky reports that Donald
Lee seems to have a strong hold on the starting tight end spot, and the Packers
may decide that they don't feel like paying a $1.4 million salary to a backup
tight end who isn't much of a special teams contributor.
Franks' biggest problem last
season was dropped passes, and he didn't help his chances of making the roster
when he dropped an easy pass in the Packers' preseason opener.
If anything could save Franks'
job, it's that the Packers lost their top backup to Lee, Tory Humphrey, to
a season-ending leg injury on the first day of training camp.
STRAHAN NO CLOSER TO
MAKING DECISION
by
Michael David Smith
Ralph Vacchiano of the New York
Daily News reports that Giants defensive end Michael Strahan is
no closer to making a decision about whether he's going to play this year
than he was when the Giants opened training camp almost three weeks ago.
At some point, though, the Giants
might make that decision for him. Per Vacchiano, coach Tom Coughlin said the
team has not set a deadline for Strahan to make his decision, "but that subject
it going to come up."
The Giants are fining Strahan at a
rate of $14,288 a day, for a total of $271,472 so far. If he doesn't show up
before the end of camp -- and Vacchiano says Strahan won't report -- his fine
total will reach $400,064. And if he never shows up Strahan could end up having
to re-pay the Giants $4.5 million.
There are some signs that the
Giants need Strahan on the field. Their first-string defense got pushed around
by the Panthers' first-string offense in the preseason opener, and at
Monday's practice the Giants shifted around the defensive line, promoting
Justin Tuck to first string defensive end and moving William Joseph to second
string defensive tackle.
But Strahan's teammates insist
that his absence wasn't the reason for their poor play. In fact, the rest of the
Giants' defense sounds as though it rehearsed a common answer to the inevitable
questions about whether they missed Strahan. Defensive end Osi Umenyiora told
Vacchiano, "That had absolutely nothing to do with Michael," and linebacker
Antonio Pierce said, "That had nothing to do with it."
TUESDAY MORNING TRAINING CAMP
ONE-LINERS by Michael
David Smith
Dallas S Ken Hamlin is expected to start
Saturday against Denver even though
he suffered a concussion in Monday's practice.
Giants coach Tom Coughlin yelled
at both CB Kevin Dockery
and some of the defensive assistant coaches after Dockery hit backup QB
Jared Lorenzen. (Said Lorenzen, "I'm fine. Now where's my burrito?")
Something might be happening on
the way to Trent Green's coronation as the Dolphins' starter in 2007.
Green might not win the job.
More specifically, he might lose
it to Cleo Lemon, who arguably is outperforming Green in camp -- and who
definitely outplayed Green in the preseason opener. Green completed only
six of 15 passes for 60 yards in a full half of action on Saturday night, and
was booed by a sellout crowd. Lemon, in contrast, completed five of six
throws for 56 yards.
An important factor to keep in
mind with Lemon is that he was traded to the Dolphins in 2005 without the
knowledge of the Chargers' coaching staff in one of the many moves that widened
the rift between G.M. A.J. Smith and former head coach Marty Schottenheimer.
Assuming that former San Diego
offensive coordinator Cam Cameron felt the same way about Lemon as
Schottenheimer did, then Lemon has a better chance to be the starter than anyone
realizes, given that Cameron is now the head coach of the Dolphins.
But why, then, did the Fins
continue to pursue Green? Our guess is that the team hoped that Green
would be even better than Lemon, but that (for whatever reason) Lemon is
potentially getting the better of it for now.
The more compelling angle to this
story is that Lemon is playing for a shot to be the starter elsewhere, since
he's due to become an unrestricted free agent in March. We're told that
Lemon has turned down a multi-year offer from the Dolphins, opting instead to
take his chances.
And he doesn't need to start every
game and lead the Dolphins to the playoffs to become an attractive option for
teams looking to improve the position in 2008. There have been plenty of
quarterbacks over the years who have gotten paid a lot of money based on a
handful of solid appearances -- since that proven (albeit limited) performance
at the NFL level is more of a track record than any draft pick can ever claim.
The ultimate irony here could be
that Lemon develops into one of the only really good quarterbacks the Dolphins
have had since Dan Marino retires . . . only to watch Lemon walk away.
PHILLIPS PLEA MAKES IT HARDER
FOR VICK TO SELL THE SGT. SCHULZ DEFENSE
One of the practical realities of
the news that the other remaining co-defendants in the Mike Vick litigation will
plead guilty to federal conspiracy charges relating to gambling and dog fighting
is that it will become much harder for Vick to say that he didn't know what
these guys were doing.
Quanis Phillips, as our own Taco
Bill discovered while this story was barely a blip on the national media's radar
screen, was listed as the contact person on Vick's supposedly legitimate
dog-breeding web site. And Phillips was with Vick when an airport
employee's Rolex came up missing in October 2004.
The following year, Vick (who has
been described by some as a victim of his friendships) stood up for guys like
Phillips.
"We all grew up tight," he said. "We all
stuck together before I was Mike Vick . . . before the fame and stardom, before
the money. There's not one new guy in my circle.
Everybody I have around me is out for my best interests."
Now, let's rewind to April 2007,
when Vick claims that he never goes to the Surry County property, and thus
doesn't know what's happening there. The image created by his denial was
that Vick allowed cousin Davon Boddie to live at the house, and that Boddie
and/or other Vick family members and friends were fighting dogs without Vick's
knowledge of involvement.
With Quanis Phillips prepared to
admit in open court that he was part of the dog-fighting operation, Vick's
denial becomes far more suspect, because it would be even more difficult (in our
view) for a guy like Phillips to be able to engage in dog fighting (and all of
the training and prep work that goes along with it) without Vick being aware of
what was happening.
And before anyone else in the
media suggests that Vick can beat the rap because the people testifying against
him are of suspect character, consider the fact that these men weren't strangers
to Vick. Vick chose to associate with at least one of them, Quanis
Phillips, for years. The fact that Phillips or any of the other
witnesses have warts on their butts shouldn't be a determining factor as to
whether they are telling the truth. The warts weren't big enough to keep
Vick from associating with them; thus, the warts shouldn't allow Vick to
distance himself from them now.
POSTED 10:44
p.m. EDT; LAST UPDATED 11:43 p.m. EDT, August 13, 2007
CLEARLY, VICK DID IT
As the sports world continues to
get its arms around Monday's surprising news that Mike Vick's two remaining
co-defendants are going to plead guilty to charges that they conspired with Vick
to maintain an interstate gambling enterprise and an interstate dog-fighting
operation, we think it's time to apply some common sense to the current state of
affairs.
Throw the presumption of innocence
out the window, folks. Clearly, Vick is factually guilty of the charges
filed against him. Why else would each of the three men with whom he
allegedly conspired admit that there was a conspiracy?
Each of the three men will go to
jail. The only benefit that they'll derive from their decision to 'fess up
is that they'll avoid being charged with the underlying crimes, which in the
case of the interstate gambling enterprise carries a far stiffer maximum
penalty.
And now Vick must ask himself
whether he wants to take advantage of that same benefit. He can plead
guilty to conspiracy charges and hope for the best when it comes to sentencing,
or he can roll the dice and hope that his lawyer can discredit seven witnesses
(and counting), each of whom will presumably testify that Vick was involved in
the gambling and dog-fighting venture.
The fact that Vick is reportedly
contemplating his
options reinforces our belief that Vick is by no means innocent.
Innocent men don't ponder pleading guilty; they proclaim their innocence in
clear, certain terms and they prepare to prove their innocence in court.
Per ESPN, if Vick doesn't plead
guilty to the conspiracy charges by Friday, a new indictment with at least two
new dog fighting charges will be filed. We believe that the new indictment
will likely also include a count based on Title 18, Section 1952 of the U.S.
Code, which is titled "Interstate or foreign trade or travel in aid of
racketeering enterprises," and which carries a maximum penalty is 20 years
behind bars.
It is a tremendous dilemma for
Vick. The man who has spent his life escaping with ease from difficult
situations is now backed into a corner. One option means certain
imprisonment for a relatively short period of time. The other option means
a strong likelihood, but not a certainty, of an even longer period behind bars.
Vick might be inclined not to
plead guilty because to do so would likely end his NFL career permanently, but
even an acquittal at this point won't be enough to get Vick back inside a shirt
with the shield at the bottom of the collar. We've said all along that
Vick will have a chance at returning to the NFL only if there is Duke
lacrosse-style evidence that fully exonerates him. With Purnell Peace and
Quanis Phillips pleading guilty as charged, that's simply not going to happen.
So we think Vick's best bet is to
plead guilty, bid farewell to the NFL, do his time quickly and quietly, and then
return to the CFL or the UFL or whatever other FL is out there when he gets out.
And, if all else fails, there's
always pro wrestling.
UPDATE: ESPN's
Kelly Naqi just said on SportsCenter that if Vick doesn't plead guilty to
pending charges by Friday he'll face at least two new counts for "felony dog
fighting." But dog fighting didn't become a felony under federal law until
a couple of weeks after the initial search of Vick's property in Virginia.
Under federal law, it was a misdemeanor at the time Vick was allegedly engaged
in it. And ESPN continues to ignore the gambling aspect of these charges.
POSTED 8:26
p.m. EDT; LAST UPDATED 9:08 p.m. EDT, August 13, 2007
FOX STIRRING THE POT IN
CAROLINA
After a game in 2003, Panthers
defensive tackle Kris Jenkins gave Kenyatta Walker the Warren Sapp treatment,
hurling various insults Walker's way for a performance that was punctuated by
four penalties, three of which were personal fouls.
"When you have to hit somebody's
facemask every play because you cannot block people fundamentally by yourself,
you are supposed to be in the CFL," Jenkins said at the time. "You aren't
supposed to be in this league.
"He was doing all that talking
before [the game], talking about [Julius Peppers] being sorry and [Mike Rucker]
being sorry," Jenkins said. "The last time I checked both of their contracts
weigh a whole lot more than his does. He can't say nothing because
obviously if he was that good he'd be doing Right Guard commercials like Sapp
is. But he ain't. He's sitting at home. He's crying. If
you are going to work with grown men then you are going to have to do something.
At least show us where you can be credible as a man.
"For me, you step up as a man,
show me something on the field, show me something off the field, but show me
something. Don't run your mouth. He talks too much. I'm saying
he sucks.
There's no question about it, he's garbage. He's horrible."
Things could get very
interesting in Panthers camp, now that the team has signed Walker to a
free-agent contract.
Sure, the ugliness occurred nearly
four years ago, and we're talking about grown men here. But we still think
that there might be some lingering animosity, which could create some
awkwardness (at a minimum) in the locker room.
NO. 25 IS UP
We continue our climb from the
bottom to the top of the NFL with No. 25 in the list of Preseason Power
Rankings.
Well, the folks at ESPN have
killed all of our fun.
By yanking Joey Sunshine from the
broadcast both and replacing him with Ron Jaworski, the production has instantly
improved -- significantly -- by shedding the stiff undercurrent of tension that
existed throughout the first and only season of the Sunshine-Tirico-Kornheier
experiment.
And that's why Theismann is
gone. That's why it was the right thing to do.
So thanks, Bristol, for making it
much harder for us to find good stuff to talk about during our Live Blogs.
Can't you put Emmitt in the booth,
too? Maybe just for a quarter?
POSTED 7:38
p.m. EDT; LAST UPDATED 8:04 p.m. EDT, August 13, 2007
GERARD GONE BY TUESDAY?
Adam Schefter of NFL Network
reports that the Broncos will part ways with defensive tackle Gerard Warren as
early as Tuesday. Warren will either be traded or released.
The Broncos, per Schefter, are
talking to the Redskins, Saints, Colts, and Dolphins. But if Warren is
going to be cut anyway, the only reason to trade for Warren would be to buy his
contract.
Though Warren has reduced his 2007
pay down to $595,000, the base salary shoots up to $4 million in 2008. So
there's no reason to buy that deal.
The problem with Warren, as one
league insider explained it to us, is that he gets complacent when he gets paid.
So after the Broncos rewarded him for a strong 2005 by giving him a new deal in
2006, Warren (some believe) went soft.
You'd think that Mike Shanahan
would have learned his lesson when he paid Darryl Gardener a bunch of money
after Gardener got his act together during a contract year in Washington.
Bottom line -- buyer beware.
Some guys who go like gangbusters when free agency is on the horizon won't
necessarily get it done after the money flows.
EMMITT REALLY IS KIND OF DUMB
Okay, so we're watching ESPN's
Monday Night Countdown, and the guys are talking about the rookies who'll
make an impact in 2007.
New guy Keyshawn Johnson pegs Jets
corner Darrelle Revis, prompting some good-natured guffaws from the other guys
on the set who point out that Revis hasn't signed yet.
Then, Emmitt Smith gets a chance
to share his views on the topic. And Emmitt selected running back Travis
Henry of the Broncos.
There's a slight problem
with Smith's theory, however. This isn't Henry's first season in the
league.
It's his seventh.
Amazingly, no one corrected
Smith's glaring error, and Smith himself didn't say something like, "I know he's
not a rookie, but he's a rookie on the Broncos."
The key here is that these guys
don't do these segments from the seat of their pants. Instead, they're
planned and discussed and, to a certain extent, rehearsed. So for Smith to
get it so wrong, and for no one to say "boo" about it, makes us wonder whether
the pounding that Smith took during his NFL career has already taken a toll on
his brain, and whether the folks at ESPN either are afraid to set him straight
-- or realize it wouldn't matter if they tried.
EMPTYING OUT THE PFTV VAULT
We just realized that we've got a
couple of PFTV segements that we never posted in the Rumor Mill.
One of them is of the "must see"
variety, since it tackles an angle we've never specifically addressed in this
space regarding the Tarik Glenn retirement. It just might explain why he
waited until late July to call it quits.
We've also got some more analysis
of the Joey Porter injury, including the question of whether the Steelers know
what they are doing when they let guys walk.
Pinkston, who is simply too thin
(in our view)
to play NFL football, has a reputation for avoiding contact. As
demonstrated by this classic clip, which for some reason the league has yet to
ask YouTube to take down, Pinkston doesn't want to get hit.
But Pinkston has become a legend
within PFT Planet for entirely different reasons. It was Pinkston who
served as the catalyst for Len Pasquarelli's "move on or
move out" meltdown while on the air with Sandy Penner and Chris McClain of
WFNZ in Charlotte. (Penner has since relocated to WIP in Philly, but Mac
is still holding down the fort in Charlotte, and we visit with him every
Wednesday at 2:25 p.m. Eastern.)
Coincidentally, a few hours before
the Pinkston signing was announced a reader told us that Adam Caplan and John
Hansen of the Sirius NFL Fantasy Football Show were talking on Friday night
about the origin of the "Stinkston" moniker. Hansen coined the term four
or five years ago, and it spread fast -- almost as fast as Stinkston gets out of
the way of a safety.
Pinkston was out of football in
2006 after being released by the Vikings. His sole NFL experience comes in
the West Coast offense, where liberal use of the "9" route by the speedy
receiver helps to clear out defenders who otherwise might disrupt underneath
patterns.
KEYSHAWN ALREADY PISSING PEOPLE
OFF
Though we didn't hear it with our
own eyes (or something), a reader tells us that ESPN's Keyshawn Johnson is
already spouting off like an idiot. His first topic? The Mike Vick
situation.
Per a reader, Johnson said on
ESPN's Monday Night Countdown that Vick fought dogs because of peer
pressure and his background.
Um. Okay. So that
makes it all right?
We should have known that
clamoring for the termination of Michael Irvin would have resulted in someone
even worse taking his place.
Public relations director Mike Taylor told
McDonald that Kiffin had been feeling ill for "a couple of days."
Kiffin is the youngest coach in
the NFL, and is preparing for his first season as a head coach.
POSTED 6:50
p.m. EDT, August 13, 2007
THE OOKIE STANDS ALONE
When Tony Taylor pleaded guilty to
federal conspiracy charges, the development was met with a shrug of the
shoulders by the remaining Mike Vick apologists out there, since Taylor had a
falling out with Vick and his other alleged co-conspirators several years ago.
Purnell Peace has a plea hearing
set for Thursday, August 16 at 9:00 a.m., and Quanis Phillips has a similar
hearing set for Friday, August 17 at 9:00 a.m.
The online announcement of the
hearings is
right here.
This is an enormously significant
development, in our view. Phillips has been a long-time friend of Vick's,
and Phillips was listed as the contact person on Vick's now-defunct K-9 Kennels
web site. Also, although Taylor was out of the picture by late 2004,
Phillips and Peace were apparently involved in the dog-fighting operation until
the point that it was uncovered in late April. Presumably, they both will
admit to a direct role in the killing of dogs deemed unfit for fighting earlier
that same month, and could point a finger at Vick on this point, too.
Though both guys surely had
planned to stand firm with Vick, they've likely decided in the 27 days since
being indicted that it's in their best interests to plead guilty to the pending
conspiracy charges, which could help them avoid indictment on the underlying
offenses of interstate gambling and interstate dog fighting, which carry maximum
penalties of another 21 years in prison.
The question now for Vick, as we
see it, is whether he should plead guilty as well to the conspiracy charges, or
whether he should risk getting indicted -- and ultimately convicted -- on the
stiffer charges.
If Vick pleads guilty, we suspect
that he'll eventually try to say that he didn't do anything wrong, but that he
didn't want to take a chance of going away for so long that he could never play
football again.
But if Vick thinks that this
strategy will allow him to serve some time and play football he's even dumber
than he was on the day that he got mixed up with Taylor, Purnell, and Peace.
If Vick pleads guilty to anything, he'll be done in the NFL, either as the
result of a lifetime suspension or a concerted shunning by the 32 franchises.
POSTED 6:34
p.m. EDT, August 13, 2007
JONES HAS CALF STRAIN
Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports
reports that Jets running back Thomas Jones has a calf strain. Jones, per
Cole, had an MRI on Monday, and will miss a couple of weeks.
Jones is expected to be ready for
the regular-season opener.
Still, his absence for the second
and third preseason games, and the associated practices, will affect his
preparation for his first season with the team. Though the "run where they
ain't" aspect of being a tailback is driven by instinct, the job is a bit more
complex than that. It could mean that Jones will get less touches than he
would have had, which could affect his early-season fantasy value.
POSTED 4:31
p.m. EDT, August 13, 2007
JETS MUM ON JONES INJURY
The Jets hope that running back
Thomas Jones will make fans begin to forget about Curtis Martin. The
process could be delayed a bit, since Jones is now hobbled by a leg injury.
Jones injured his leg on Sunday,
and
did not practice on Monday. His leg was wrapped from the top of his
ankle to the top of his calf, and he rode a stationary bike and performed
calisthenics. Jones also was walking with a slight limp.
The Jets won't comment on the
injury, and aren't require to say anything about any injuries until the regular
season opener approaches.
"I can tell you that he is working
extremely hard, and he'll be back as quickly as he can," coach Eric Mangini
said. "Thomas has a pretty strong track record. He's been pretty
durable."
John Clayton of ESPN.com
speculates in the for-pay side of the site that Jones' injury
could be a high ankle sprain. (It's a good thing we subscribe to the
Insider service; otherwise we might have concluded based on the available
evidence that Jones has a broken nose.)
POSTED 2:54
p.m. EDT, August 13, 2007
JAGS SIGN KNIGHT
Adam Schefter of NFL Network
reports that the Jaguars have signed free-agent safety Sammy Knight to a
one-year deal.
Knight was one of three veteran
safeties whom the Jags brought into camp on Monday. The other two were
Shaun Williams and Tony Parrish.
As we mentioned earlier, the
arrival of Knight could result in the release of Nick Sorensen or Kevin McAdam.
As the Jacksonville Jaguars
recover from the loss of Deon Grant to free agency and the release of Donovin
Darius, the team apparently has decided that the current depth chart that
features a first-round rookie (Reggie Nelson) and a backup who has gotten some
game experience due to injury (Gerald Sensabaugh) isn't good enough to handle
the gig.
A league source tells us that the
Jags are bringing in three veteran safeties for a look-see on Monday.
Any additions in this area could
mean the release of Kevin McAdam (who currently is listed as the backup to
Sensabaugh at strong safety) or the release of Nick Sorensen (who currently is
listed as the starter at free safety in front of Nelson).
PACMAN'S BLOOD WAS FAKE
Several wrestling aficionados
cried foul regarding our reference to the blood from the off-camera "cut" over
Pacman's eye on Sunday night as phony.
As one wrestling insider (hey, the
reach of the PFT virus is broad) told us on Monday morning,
"In pro wrestling
the biggest irony is that the one of the few things that is real is the blood.
Small razor blades are used to break the skin to get the blood flowing. So
there is a real possibility that he 'juiced' for that backstage segment."
But we're now informed that the blood was indeed as fake as the action in the
ring. Per a source with knowledge of the situation (we told you the reach
of the PFT virus is broad), Jones was not touched at any time, and he did not
cut himself for the backstage "ambush" aftermath.
So there you have it. No Pacmen were harmed in the filming of last night's
pay-per-view event.
The Denver Broncos raised eyebrows
a couple of years ago for their sudden interest in Cleveland Browns defensive
linemen. By the time the dust settled, the Broncos had acquired four
so-called "Browncos" before the start of the 2005 season: Courtney Brown,
Gerard Warren, Michael Myers, and Ebenezer Ekuban.
The following year, the Broncos
added defensive end Kenard Lang, another former Brown. In 2007, the
Broncos signed former Browns defensive tackle Alvin McKinley.
But Brown and Myers already are
gone, and Warren apparently will be the next one out the door.
Warren is apparently out of the
plans for 2007, since he was told to stay home and not travel with the team for
the preseason opener on Monday night in Denver.
Warren was the No. 3 pick in the
2001 draft, and Brown was the No. 1 overall selection in 2000.
The only remaining original
Brownco is defensive end Ebenezer Ekuban, who currently is listed as the
starting right defensive end, in front of 2007 first-round draft choice Jarvis
Moss. Lang is the No. 3 left defensive end, and McKinley is a third-string
defensive tackle, but could bump up to the second team when Warren is moved.
The decision to trade Warren is
the apparent result of an offseason that has resulted in the addition of
McKinley, Sam Adams, Jimmy Kennedy, and Marcus Thomas. The latter was a
fourth-round draft pick who could have been a first-rounder but for some
off-field issues, including getting kicked off of the University of Florida
football team.
The Post explains that
Warren is not a good for coordinator Jim Bates' scheme, which requires interior
lineman to bottle up blockers. Warren's skills might be better suited for
a Cover 2 attack, since he can penetrate the wall of blockers and get into the
backfield.
With the Colts in need of some
depth at the position, he could get a look there.
ALL-SEINFELD ROSTER KEEPS
GROWING
We've posted 22 more entries to
the All-Seinfeld Team, which is quickly becoming one of the most popular
features on the site. (Which, we suppose, doesn't say much about most of
the other features on the site.)
Keep sending your ideas. We
use some of them, and some of them help us come up with more of our own.
The filter is getting a little
thicker as most of the good ones have been claimed, but PFT Planet is a smart
and creative bunch. We figure that more idea will be
coming our way today.
WR Ashley Lelie was asked if he
wants to give his old coach, Mike Shanahan, a piece of his mind tonight, and he
replied, "I
already gave him a piece of my bank account. I don't want to give him
anything else."
Eagles QB Donovan McNabb
won't play at Baltimore tonight because, coach Andy Reid says, "I'd rather
just start him off at our place on grass."
Undrafted rookie LB Pago Togafau
has been more
impressive than third-round pick Buster Davis in Cardinals camp.
Rams RB Brian Leonard gave the
ball back to the official when he scored a touchdown in the preseason opener,
but teammate
Steven Jackson retrieved it so Leonard could have it as a souvenir.
Cowboys assistant coaches (and
brothers) John and Jason Garrett are
spending a football season together for the first time since they both
played for the San Antonio Riders in 1991.
Wade Phillips
tried to send a message to the rest of his team by cutting a guy who wasn't
going to make the team anyway.
As he watched his first-string
defense get picked apart in the preseason opener, Giants coach Tom Coughlin said
the absence of DE Michael Strahan "didn't
cross my mind."
The Redskins' first-string defense
looked good Saturday. (And maybe that's because Kerry Collins was the
opposing quarterback.)
Third-string Bears QB Kyle Orton
calls second-string Bears QB Brian Griese "the
most important person on this team for me." (Apparently, Griese is
teaching Orton how to come up with non-alcohol-related excuses for household
mishaps.)
Fifth-round S Kevin Payne
played so well
early in the Bears' training camp that he made his former college teammate,
Chris Harris, expendable.
The Lions' offensive line
only gave up one sack in 49 dropbacks in their preseason opener; G Edwin
Mulitalo was to blame.
LB Dhani Jones says signing with
the Saints in July
made him realize the importance of OTAs. (And reading that article
made me realize that the folks at the Times-Picayune don't know what
"OTA" stands for.)
Michael Pittman is looking forward
to
moving from running back to fullback (especially since a fullback blocking a
defensive back is the football equivalent of ramming a Hummer into a sedan).
In response to a report from Jason
Cole of Yahoo! Sports that Falcons quarterback Mike Vick likely will receive a
one-year suspension within the next week or two, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello tells
USA Today that "[n]o
decision has been made."
Aiello also explained that the
league is still awaiting the results of an independent review, and that no
action will be taken until after the investigation is completed.
This meshes with Peter King's
report from halftime of last night's NBC preseason game. King said that
former U.S. Attorney Eric Holder is expected to submit his report within the
next week or two.
But we think that both positions
can be harmonized pretty easily. Even if the independent review has not
been completed and even if no decision will be made until the investigation is
done, it's possible that the folks inside the league offices have a pretty good
sense of where this is all going to end up.
As should anyone with any amount
common sense.
Think of it this way. Vick
currently is banned from camp, but he hasn't been suspended. He's getting
paid during his non-suspension suspension. So, barring a real suspension,
what will happen when the regular season starts?
If he is allowed to return, the
Falcons will undoubtedly impose a four-game suspension for conduct detrimental
to the team.
But then what? The Falcons
can't send him home with pay after a four-game suspension, thanks to the T.O.
clause in the revised CBA. Besides, a paid leave of absence doesn't "feel"
right in this case, and presumably was ruled out before the NFL stepped in and
told Vick to stay away from camp.
The bottom line is that Vick can't
come back while the current allegations against him are pending. The only
question is whether his ongoing absence occurs on a paid or unpaid basis.
If the paid leave option is already off of the table, then the obvious choice is
unpaid leave.
And the only way that can happen
is with a suspension.
VIKINGS COME OFF AS HYPOCRITES
In the wake of the Love Boat
fiasco, Vikings owner Zygi Wilf laid down the law. At one point, he
planned to impose his own in-house disciplinary scheme, until he was reminded
that the CBA limits his ability to do so.
Going forward, Wilf vowed to
ensure that character would count in Minnesota.
Expect where, of course, a player
who has a documented history of character issues possesses enough talent at a
position of need to merit a second chance.
Defensive tackle Fred Evans, cut
by the Fins after a bizarre incident in the back of a cab, has been signed by
the Vikings.
"He's
a guy that made a mistake and is paying for it," Childress said. "But
somewhere you make a decision based on what you say and what you know and people
you talk to in this business. I think I've talked to as many people about
this guy as anybody."
Translation: Like every
other football coach, Childress thinks he's the one guy who can get through to a
player who has yet to show that anyone can get through to him.
And Evans made not one but two
mistakes. He was arrested for marijuana possession earlier this year,
several months before his taxi cab tantrum.
"It doesn't mean character's not important,"
Childress said. "It's very important to me and to this football team.
I think we've got a good group in the locker room, and I think he'll benefit
from being in this situation."
But couldn't that same reasoning
apply to any player with a history of bad conduct? Under this
theory, would the Vikings open their doors to Pacman Jones? Or to Chris
Henry? Or Jared Allen? Or Mike Vick?
Heck, if the team is willing to
ink Evans when he's facing a near-certain suspension for violation of the
Personal Conduct Policy, why not sign Tank Johnson?
This development suggests to us
that Childress feels the noose tightening on his tenure with the team, and that
another poor showing could get him canned. Thus, like Jon Gruden in Tampa,
Childress is more willing to take a risk on a guy who might embarrass the
franchise after the current head coach become the former head coach.
Most importantly, the Vikings pick
up the pending Turd Watch points for Evans.
With multiple felony counts of resisting arrest with violence and battery on a
police officer and misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and trespassing,
that's 34 total points that the Vikings inherit. And that puts them
instantly at the front of the pack in the NFC, and in third place overall.
We have a feeling that no one in
the Metrodome will be blowing that big horn about this.
POSTED 8:30
a.m. EDT, August 13, 2007
NO RUSSELL TALKS IN MORE THAN A
WEEK
A league source tells us that, as
of Sunday afternoon, the Raiders and the representatives of quarterback JaMarcus
Russell had gone more than a week without engaging in any substantive talks on a
contract for the first overall pick in the draft.
Russell's chances of playing as a
rookie are shrinking by the day, and at some point we've got to wonder whether
this thing will drag into the regular season.
Also, based on what we've heard
about the offer that the Raiders have made, we've also got to wonder whether at
some point Russell decides to tell his agents to get a deal done or else he'll
be making a change in representation. The kid recently bought a house in
Oakland; though he could just as easily sell it, the fact that he made the
purchase tells us that he's ready to get rolling.
Linebacker Chike Okeafor has a
torn bicep muscle, and starting right tackle Oliver Ross has a torn triceps
muscle.
The injury to Ross means that
rookie Levi Brown will start on the right side as a rookie, which is equivalent
to the left side in most other cities because quarterback Matt Leinart truly is
(unlike Mandy Patinkin's character from The Princess Bride) left handed.
POSTED 8:00
a.m. EDT, August 13, 2007
PRECEDENT DOESN'T FAVOR JETS
Recently, Rich Cimini of the
New York Daily News recently explained that the Jets have decided to hold
firm in their desire for cornerback Darrelle Revis to sign a six-year contract
based on extensive "research
and preparation" performed by G.M. Mike Tannenbaum.
But we wonder whether that
research includes the precedent that the Jets created over the past eight years,
during which time Tannenbaum had key roles within the organization.
It apparently doesn't.
In 2000, for example, the Jets had
four first-round draft choices: No. 12 pick Shaun Ellis, No. 13 pick John
Abraham, No. 18 pick Chad Pennington, and No. 27 pick Anthony Becht.
All four signed five-year deals.
In 2001, Santana Moss was the No.
16 overall selection with the Jets. He signed a five-year deal.
In 2002, Bryan Thomas was the No.
22 overall pick. He signed a five-year deal.
In 2003, the Jets traded up
to make Dewayne Robertson the No. 4 overall selection. Like most players
taken at the very top of the draft, Robertson signed a longer-term deal.
In Robertson's case, it was a seven-year contract.
In 2004, Jonathan Vilma signed a
five-year deal despite being the No. 12 overall pick.
In 2005, the Jets didn't have a
first round pick.
Finally, in 2006 the Jets had two
first-rounders in the first year of the current caps on contract length.
The No. 4 overall pick, tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson, signed a six-year deal.
The No. 29 overall selection, Nick Mangold, inked a five-year contract.
This year, the Jets are trying to
cram a six-year deal down the throat of Revis, the No. 14 pick, even though
every other player around him has signed a five-year contract (or a six-year
deal that readily voids to five).
What research did Tannenbaum do
that would justify a departure from this precedent? And if the response is
that the Jets have opted to embark on a new course, this undermines (in our
view) the team's refusal to also depart from its precedent of not including
voidable years in their rookie deals.
So what's really happening here?
We think that Jets coach Eric Mangini has carried from his last employer, the
Patriots, the habit of insisting on the maximum possible contract length.
But if that's the case, should the team be trying to sell its position as the
product of hours and hours of research via apparent leaks to the media?
The better approach is to say nothing, and to insist on a six-year term because
the CBA gives them the right to do so -- regardless of whether many of the other
teams using picks in the top half of round one opted not to make similar
demands.
POSTED 11:16
p.m. EDT, August 12, 2007
PACMAN SUFFERS "INJURY" AT TNA
EVENT
Titans cornerback Pacman Jones,
who agreed over the weekend not to engage in any activities with TNA wrestling
that could result in personal injury (and, in turn, a breach of his football
contract and a violation of a court order),
suffered an
off-camera "injury" on Sunday night during the Hard Justice
pay-per-view event.
Jones turned up with a cut above
his eye and was removed on a stretcher after a supposed backstage ambush, which
occurred after Jones and some other guy engaged in trash-talking in the arena. Pacman challenged the other guy to get into the ring but security intervened.
Hopefully Pacman made good use out
of that ketchup after he scraped it off of his head.
POSTED 10:54
p.m. EDT, August 12, 2007
RAMS JUST KICKING RICE'S TIRES
A league source tells us that the
St. Louis Rams aren't presently intent on making a big push for defensive end
Simeon Rice, and that if anything they'll bring him in to "kick his tires."
There's a concern as to whether
Rice could pass a physical. Though he reportedly passed a physical in New
York a couple of weeks ago, the outcome might have been influenced by the
Giants' desire to put some heat on holdout defensive end Michael Strahan.
Also, the Rams (we're told) are
worried that Rice wants too much money. So it's likely that the Rams will
take a wait-and-see approach with Rice.
Indeed, some league insiders think
that no one will sign Rice until after the first regular-season game, given the
rule that converts the base salary of all vested veterans (i.e., four
years or more) into guaranteed income if the player is on the opening-day
roster. Signing Rice after Week One makes it financially easier to cut him
loose if he's not effective on the field, or if he's a pain in the butt in the
locker room.
There's also a belief in some
league circles that the Rams' potential interest in Rice was leaked not by the
team but by the Rice camp, possibly in order to drum up interest in a guy who
has yet to command the attention that many had presumed when he was cut by Tampa
Bay.
POSTED 9:43
p.m. EDT; LAST UPDATED 10:02 p.m. EDT, August 12, 2007
VICK REPORT NOT DONE YET
Peter King of NBC just explained
at halftime of Sunday night's preseason game that the report of former U.S.
Attorney Eric Holder has not yet been completed, and won't be for at least a
week or two. Holder is the guy who has been asked to look into the
question of whether Mike Vick violated the Personal Conduct Policy.
King also says that, absent such a
report, Commissioner Roger Goodell won't make a decision as to whether Vick
indeed violated the policy.
But King reiterated Goodell's
comments to him from last month. If it turns out that Vick was lying to
Goodell when Vick said in April that there was no dog fighting occurring on
Vick's property in Surry County, Virginia, Goodell will deem the
misrepresentation to be a violation of the Personal Conduct Policy.
The fact that Tony Taylor already
has pleaded guilty as charged to his involvement in a dog-fighting operation
housed on Vick's property would seem to be enough proof to conclude that Vick
was lying. And, in turn, that would be enough to boot him out of the
league, possibly for a year.
SUSPENSION CARRIES $28 MILLION
PRICE TAG
If Falcons quarterback Mike Vick
is suspended by the league prior to the start of the regular season, Vick will
owe $28.76 million in bonus money that he already has received.
The calculation was based on bonus
forfeiture language used by the Falcons in a similar contract the team was using
at about the same time that Vick signed his extension that carries $37 million
in total bonus money. The roster bonuses that were part of that total
amount were converted to signing bonuses, and thus apparently are in play when
the time comes to determine how much Vick owes.
The bigger question is whether
Vick even has $28 million in liquid assets. Sure, he's made plenty of
money. But he's spent plenty, too. And he has paid taxes in the
highest possible bracket. He simply might not be able to write that check.
Bottom line? Even if Vick is
acquitted on all charges, he could emerge from this mess with not much money
left.
NO. 26 IS UP
Despite a one-day respite from
both full-time jobs, it's not time to miss a beat on the 2007 preseason power
rankings.
Coles cites two unnamed sources in
support of the report. Said one of them: "That's the direction it's
going and has been from the time this started."
Said another source: "The
plan was to make sure it was announced before the season. Given what
everybody has seen from what [league] security found and what the feds are
telling us, there's really no choice."
Before Vick was indicted, we'd
heard from several sources that NFL security believed that Vick was involved in
dog fighting, and that the NFL had a strong role in pressing the federal
government to get involved, given the apparent desire of Surry County, Virginia
prosecutor Gerald Poindexter to brush the whole thing under the rug (or, as the
case may be, the blood- stained fighting pit carpeting).
The suspension would be imposed
notwithstanding the proclamations of many talking heads (and you know who you
are) that Vick can't be punished before resolution of the criminal case because
this is his first official criminal charge. But these non-lawyer
journalists have never grasped the significance of the adverb "generally."
That one word makes it very easy for Commissioner Roger Goodell to explain that
this isn't the "general" case, and that discipline is appropriate before the
jury renders a verdict.
We agree. Vick's current
predicament isn't the result of a bad night at the club or being in the wrong
place at the wrong time. Vick is accused of being involved in a criminal
enterprise that operated for multiple years, and involved among other things the
cold-blooded killing of man's best friend.
This case is anything but
"general." Thus, no one should be surprised when the league treats it
accordingly.
THANK YOU, MDS
Yours truly took a much-needed
24-hour break to spend some quality time with family in a secluded cabin on the
Buckhannon River in Upshur County, West Virginia. In past years, this
would mean no new content on the site during the break.
But thanks to Michael David Smith
the ball kept rolling while I was out of pocket.
Rice, a three-time Pro Bowler, was
released by the Bucs last month and remains one of the league's few notable
unrestricted free agents. The Bucs said Rice failed a physical, but it's been
reported that Tampa Bay would have kept him around if he had been willing to
accept a pay cut.
In addition to the Rams, the
Giants and Titans have shown interest in Rice.
If he signed with St. Louis, the
33-year-old Rice would likely be used as a situational pass rusher. He would
have little to no chance of unseating the Rams' starters, Leonard Little and
James Hall.
Rice's 2006 season was cut short
by a shoulder injury, and he recorded just two sacks in eight games.
SUNDAY AFTERNOON TRAINING CAMP
ONE-LINERS by Michael
David Smith
Bucs coach Jon Gruden says of QB
Chris Simms, "We can all talk about the elbow and the arm, but
he isn't playing very
well right now. When he starts to play better, he will get a chance to play.
[Luke] McCown is outplaying him, and Bruce [Gradkowski] is outplaying him. I
want him to play better."
Not only has WR Michael Clayton
dropped out of the starting lineup in Tampa Bay, but it's starting to sound like
he might not even make
the roster.
Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt
says his team had
too many penalties in the preseason opener.
Three Seattle tight ends
are injured heading into tonight's game against the Chargers.
If their game in China hadn't been
canceled, the Seahawks would have
flown
an extra 11,000 miles in their preseason schedule.
POSTED 12:54 p.m., August 12, 2007
ROBERT SMITH: AT LEAST 30
PERCENT OF PLAYERS CHEAT by
Michael David Smith
Former Vikings running back Robert
Smith has never been afraid to speak his mind, dating back to his days at Ohio
State, when he quit the football team because he said a coach told him to skip
class.
But a comment attributed to Smith
today was surprising, even for a player who doesn't hesitate to state his
opinions.
Speaking on ESPN's The Sports
Reporters this morning, panelist Dan LeBatard gave this account of a
conversation he had with Smith last week: "He guessed that at least 30 percent
of football players are using some kind of performance enhancer. At least
30 percent."
That's an odd thing for Smith to
say, considering that in 2005, he told the Washington Post that steroid
use is "probably not much more widespread than the people you see getting
caught. I think if more people were doing it, you'd see more people getting
caught.
It's not that easy to hide."
If performance-enhancing drug use
isn't easy to hide, how could 30 percent of the NFL be getting away with it?
LeBatard's comment was just a brief aside in a discussion that was mostly about
Barry Bonds, but now that it's out there, both Smith and LeBatard should clarify
it.
POSTED 12:25 p.m., August 12, 2007
CONCUSSION DOC ACCUSED OF
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
by
Michael David Smith
The NFL has a growing problem on
its hands with the public perception that the league doesn't do enough for
players who suffer concussions on the field, and questions are being raised
about Dr. Mark Lovell, who is described as
the NFL's top consultant on
head trauma.
Peter Keating of ESPN The
Magazine has a story up at ESPN.com that explores whether Lovell has
a conflict of
interest resulting from his role as chairman of a company that sells
neuropsychological testing software to NFL teams.
Keating, who also appeared on this
morning's edition of Outside the Lines to discuss the issue, reports that
Lovell's company sells diagnostic software known by the abbreviation ImPACT. Per
Keating, Lovell hasn't always disclosed his obvious financial incentive to see ImPACT systems sell. And the systems do sell -- according to Keating, 30 of the
NFL's 32 teams now use ImPACT.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has
told every NFL team to implement baseline neuropsychological tests, and ImPACT,
Keating reports, "has since become the league's de facto standard testing
system." This despite the fact that, Keating reports, many experts aren't
convinced of the effectiveness of ImPACT.
Keating spoke to Christopher
Randolph, professor of neurology at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago
and former Bears team neuropsychologist, who questioned whether it's ethical for
Lovell to advise the NFL if his advice will essentially be, "buy my ImPACT
system."
"It is a major conflict of
interest, scientifically irresponsible," Randolph tells Keating. "We are trying
to get to what the real risks are of sports-related concussion, and you have to
wonder why they are promoting testing. Do they have an agenda to sell more
ImPACTs?"
As long as others in the medical
community are raising such questions about the NFL's top concussion advisor, the
NFL's concussion problem will continue to grow.
POSTED 7:45 a.m., August 12, 2007
YOUNG LEFT TITANS' HOTEL
WITHOUT PERMISSION
by
Michael David Smith
Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean
reports that the rules violation that got Titans quarterback Vince Young benched
for Saturday night's preseason opener had to do with staying at home, rather
than at the team hotel, Friday night.
According to Wyatt,
Young broke curfew by spending Friday night at home instead of at the hotel
where the Titans stay during training camp. Players with less than four years'
experience are required to stay at the hotel. Young is in his second season.
"I made a decision to not allow Vince to play in the ball game for violating a
team rule, period. End of story,'' Titans coach Jeff Fisher said. "He will be
back practicing Monday with his teammates. He is our starting quarterback and we
like him. He is going to be a good quarterback. … I am done talking about it.''
Young wore street clothes and stood on the sidelines during the Titans' 14-6
loss to the Redskins. He did not speak to reporters before or after the game.
Wyatt reports that Young's
teammates defended him after the game and suggested that a similar violation
would not have resulted in a similar punishment if the game had mattered.
Defensive tackle Albert
Haynesworth was asked if the Titans were fortunate Young didn't break curfew
before a regular-season game, and Haynesworth answered, "I don't know if he
would be sitting out in the regular season, to be honest. Those games are a
little more important.''
POSTED 7:26 a.m., August 12, 2007
DARREN MCFADDEN: NO
DECISION YET
by
Michael David Smith
Saturday morning in this space we
noted that ESPN.com quoted the mother of Arkansas running back Darren McFadden
saying her son
plans to enter the NFL after the 2007 college season.
But Saturday night, McFadden said
he has not made a decision.
"That's something right now
I haven't really thought about -- my college future or what I'm going to do
in the future," McFadden told the Northwest Arkansas Morning News. "Right
now, I'm just focusing on the season."
"I don't know what was really said
in the conversation, but my mom said there were some things that were
misunderstood. But it's something right now I'm not thinking about. (I'm) just
moving forward right now."
For her part, Mini Muhammad, McFadden's mother, claims ESPN.com's Pat Forde
didn't understand what she told him.
"No, (Darren) hasn't made a decision," Muhammad told the Morning News. "I
didn't even tell that man (Darren's) made a decision."
Although McFadden is a top
prospect who will almost certainly be a Top 10 pick when he enters the draft,
asking his mother now what he'll do isn't a particularly reliable way of
determining what he'll actually do five months from now. So many things could
change in the interim -- he could get hurt, his family's financial status could
change, Arkansas coach Houston Nutt could leave, etc. -- that even if he thinks
he knows what he's going to do, he might change his mind before he has to
declare for the draft in January.
POSTED 6:16 a.m., August 12, 2007
CHIEFS, LARRY JOHNSON
GETTING CLOSER
by
Michael David Smith
Adam Schefter of NFL Network is
reporting that the Chiefs and running back Larry Johnson have had contact talks
recently that indicate the sides are getting closer to a long-term contract
extension.
Schefter reports that the team and
the Johnson camp engaged in serious discussions last week, and made good
progress Saturday. They expect to keep talking this week.
Per Schefter, the tone of
conversations between the two sides has improved since training camp kicked off,
and Johnson and the team both want to get a deal done that will have Johnson in
a Chiefs uniform when Week 1 of the regular season kicks off. The Chiefs and
Johnson had been reported to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $15 million
apart on guaranteed money, and that is apparently no longer the case.
Of course, "getting closer" and
actually having a signed contract are two very different things, and it's
possible that Johnson, his representatives or Chiefs General Manager Carl
Peterson will balk at something and bring the talks to a standstill. But for
now, there's increasing optimism that a deal could get done.
POSTED 7:13 p.m. EDT;
UPDATED 7:18 p.m., August 11, 2007
Coach Jeff Fisher would not reveal
the rule Young violated. “He will be on the sidelines tonight, and will practice
this week and play next weekend at New England,’’ Fisher said.
Kerry Collins will start at quarterback for the Titans.
At this point there's no reason to
speculate about what Young might have done to draw Fisher's ire, but Fisher no doubt
wants to send a message to his young quarterback that he's going to hold him to
a high standard -- a message Fisher obviously wishes he could have made clearer to Pacman Jones.
Maybe this incident is the first
sign that the Madden Curse
has struck again.
POSTED 6:38 p.m. EDT, August 11, 2007
BILLS' ANTHONY HARGROVE
SUSPENDED
by
Michael David Smith
Bills defensive end Anthony
Hargrove has been
suspended four games for a violation of the league's substance abuse policy.
Hargrove is eligible to continue playing in the preseason, but he will miss the
Bills' first four regular-season games and be docked four weeks' salary. He will
be eligible to return to the active roster on Monday, October 1.
The suspension comes less than a week after Hargrove was arrested in Rochester
and charged with misdemeanor harassment, criminal mischief, and resisting arrest
following an altercation with police officers. Hargrove pleaded not guilty and
is expected back in court on Tuesday, August 21 for a pre-trial hearing.
No details were released about the
nature of Hargrove's substance-abuse violation, and it's not clear whether he
will face additional discipline from the league for the incident in Rochester.
A
brief statement
on the Bills' web site reads, "In compliance with the NFL’s confidentiality
clause in the Substance Abuse Policy, the Bills are prohibited from discussing
any details of the suspension."
POSTED 3:32
p.m. EDT; LAST UPDATED 4:48 p.m. EDT, August 11, 2007
COURT OKAYS PACMAN AGREEMENT
A judge in Tennessee has
modified a temporary
restraining order, allowing Titans cornerback Pacman Jones to appear at a
TNA pay-per-view event on Sunday night, as long as he does nothing to put
himself at risk of injury.
"It doesn't mean he can't
participate and be present at whatever he's under contract to do with them,"
Titans COO Steve Underwood said. "It just means that he can't participate
in anything where he's going to get hurt. That was always our concern."
The agreement applies to Jones and
to TNA, which joined the discussions and participated in the agreement.
Though it's still unclear whether
the agreement brings the case to a conclusion or merely sets the parameters of
what is and isn't allowed as the litigation proceeds, Alex Marvez of
FOXSports.com writes that another Titans player, defensive end Kyle Vanden
Bosch, previously has appeared at a TNA event, and was involved in physical
contact there.
Vanden Bosch pulled wrestler James
Harris out of the ring while he was facing former Titans tight end Frank Wycheck.
So why would the Titans allow
Vanden Bosch to get physical but not allow Jones to participate? Maybe the
Titans didn't know about Vanden Bosch's plans. Or maybe the Titans are so
upset with Jones that they'll oppose his efforts simply to twist his tail.
And that raises another point,
which several readers have raised with us. Why don't the Titans just cut
the guy?
It's a fair question, but we think
that the team fears that, if they release him now and he eventually returns to
the NFL and fulfills his potential, they'll look doubly stoopid for drafting a
bust and then giving up on him before he busted out. Also, we think that
the team is hoping to trade him next year, after his suspension ends. And
that would explained the franchise's desire to ensure that he stays healthy.
Then there's the whole bonus
repayment issue. There's a feeling that, if the team cuts him before a
certain point, the team will forfeit the ability to recover money due to his
one-year suspension.
Hey, there's still a market for a
guy like Pacman. He possesses two very desirable skills at the NFL level
-- covering receivers and returning kicks. If/when he straightens himself
out and realizes that participating in sideshow stunts won't get him back to the
NFL any sooner, he could still have a decent career for himself.
ALL-SEINFELD TEAM KEEPS GROWING
As we continue to get more
suggestions from readers, and as we continue to think of some of our own to add
to the list, the roster of the All-Seinfeld Team continues to grow.
As a result, there are nearly 90
entries on the list. We won't stop until there are at least 100.
On Saturday night, we'll be making
our first visit with D.C.'s legendary Sports Junkies as part of their Redskins
pre-game broadcast. The show runs from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. on WJFK,
and can be heard by clicking the "listen live" link
on
this page.
Yours truly will join the party at
7:00 p.m. or so.
And the plan is to make an
appearance on each of their Redskins pre-game broadcasts for the entire 2007
season. But we figure that we'll find a way to screw it up. Possibly
by the end of the preseason.
On Sunday afternoon, it'll be time
for the weekly spot with Denny Hocking and Dan Moriarty of FOX Sports Radio.
Tune in at 4:30 p.m. EDT.
NO. 27 IS UP
We're continuing our climb up the
NFL ladder. With No. 32 through No. 28 in the same bag that some of their
fans will be wearing over their heads this season, we venture into teams that
aren't that much better, but whose fans might not have gotten the memo.
Thus, we expect plenty of people
to be unhappy with the team we've pegged for No. 27 on the list.
The Nashville Tennessean
reports that Titans cornerback Pacman Jones
has agreed not to engage in pro wrestling. In exchange, the Titans
have agreed to allow Jones to be involved with the TNA pro wrestling "league."
But Jones' agreement includes not
only a commitment not to wrestle, but also to avoid physical contact or any
other wrestling activity that puts him at risk of physical injury.
The parties will present their
agreement to a judge on Saturday morning, and will request that he modify the
temporary restraining order that was entered on Friday.
This means that Jones will be
allowed to appear at TNA's Sunday night pay-per-view event, but that he won't be
allowed to enter the ring for the purposes of wrestling, or to do any of the
things that the folks on the periphery of a wrestling match do from time to
time, such as enter the ring with a chair or some other hard object.
But we suspect that the folks at
TNA will come up with some ideas for getting Pacman into the action. He
could throw tomatoes or eggs at wrestlers. He could "make it rain" funny
money on the T-'n'-A of TNA. He could fire a gun with blanks in it at the
wrestlers.
As long as he's not at risk of
injury, he can do pretty much whatever they want him to do.
Then again, does anyone expect
that Jones and TNA won't push the limits of any such agreement? It might
be a poor legal strategy, but it will be great for business.
It's not clear whether this
agreement is temporary or permanent. It's possible that Jones could still
fight the case, on substantive grounds or on technicalities. As we
mentioned on Friday, Jones might be able to argue that any effort to enforce the
terms of his football contract must be addressed via a grievance that is ruled
upon by an arbitrator, and that the lawsuit should be dismissed. Also,
Jones could argue that the limitations contained in his football contract don't
apply during an unpaid suspension.
We're not sure how the latter
argument will hold up in a court of law, but it would have plenty of appeal in
the court of public opinion. We've received lots of e-mails from readers
who think that it is incredibly unfair for the league to tell Jones that he
can't play football, and then for the Titans to tell him that he can't take
advantage of an opportunity to make money while on suspension.
An interesting factual issue that
could arise in this regard is whether any Titans players are involved in hobbies
that could give rise to a significant risk of personal injury, and whether the
team is aware of these activities. If so, and if the team has done nothing
to stop them from engaging in such hobbies, Jones could argue that the Titans
have established a precedent in matters of this nature and that they should not
be allowed to deviate from this practice selectively.
Again, we don't know how such an
argument would be viewed by a court of law, but it's an intriguing possibility.
Regardless of the approach that
Jones takes, it's going to be very hard for him to argue that pro wrestling
doesn't involve a "significant risk of personal injury." As we surmised on
Friday, Jones' contract with TNA contains a disclaimer which confirms that Jones
could get hurt.
"YOU FULLY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE
RENDERING OF YOUR SERVICES HEREUNDER MAY BE HAZARDOUS, YOU KNOWINGLY AND
VOLUNTARILY TAKE ON AND ASSUME THE CONSEQUENCES OF SUCH RISK . . . ."
Said the Titans in a legal filing,
"It would be the height of absurdity for [Jones] to argue that professional
wrestling for TNA — itself promoted a 'high risk' endeavor — did not well exceed
the prohibition of his NFL Player Contract — engoing [sic] in any activity
'which may involve a significant risk of personal injury.'"
The Tennessean notes that
the Titans have not yet made TNA a party to the action, but could do so after
the pre-trial discovery process unfolds. If, for example, Jones were to
testify at a deposition that TNA was aware of the limitations in Jones' contract
but nevertheless persisted in its efforts to get him to sign a deal with them to
be a wrestler, TNA could be responsible for interfering with the Titans'
contractual rights.
All of this hinges on the question
of whether the agreement that was reached on Friday is temporary, or whether it
is permanent.
Either way, Jones will appear on
Sunday night's pay-per-view event. But merely as a spectator.
ALL-SEINFELD TEAM IS ALREADY
UPDATED
We've already received from
readers some great ideas for additions to our All-Seinfeld Team, and we've
thought of a few on our own.
When Bears DT Tommie Harris was
asked if he'd play in tonight's exhibition opener, he said, "Noooooo.
I want to rest up."
Bears QB Rex Grossman said, "I
hope to look sharp. I hope there aren't too many missed assignments."
The Lions
dominated the last 10 minutes of their preseason opener with the Bengals,
meaning the guys who'll get cut in Detroit are better than the guys who'll get
cut in Cincinnati.
Lions spokesman Bill Keenist said
of a report that RB Kevin Jones will miss at least the first six games, "That
is absolutely untrue. That's premature. No decision has been
made."
Packers WR Donald Driver says of
teammate Shaun Bodiford, who plays on the kickoff coverage, "You've
got to be loony to hit a wedge. Shaun is one of those loony guys."
QB Joey Harrington says of being
in Atlanta, "My confidence level is
miles beyond what it was in Miami and Detroit." (And that's because he
has yet to play in a regular-season game in Atlanta.)
Rams K Kevin Lovell
isn't going to beat out Jeff Wilkins, but kicking the game-winning field
goal in last night's preseason game could help him catch on somewhere else.
How do we know? Because
ESPN.com apparently badgered his mom into giving up the goods.
"He told me [Friday], 'Mom, I'll
be through in December,'" said Mini Muhammed. "I said, 'What you mean?'
He said, 'I'll be through.' That's what he told me."
Asked by ESPN.com whether this
means (duh) that he'll be entering the draft, Muhammed said, "Yeah. He'll
be making big money."
On Wednesday, however, McFadden
told ESPN.com that he wouldn't make a decision until after the season.
McFadden is a junior, and was not
redshirted. Under NFL rules, his first year of draft eligibility is 2008.
Look, we've got no problem with
the folks from ESPN.com doing whatever they have to do to break stories.
But why pester the kid's parents with this stuff? Clearly, McFadden knew
what he was going to do, but opted not to say so before his final season --
especially since it could cause some Heisman voters to be inclined not to vote
for him if they believe that he created a needless distraction for his team.
Now, there might be a rift between
McFadden and his mom. Thanks, ESPN.com.
The other premier NCAA running
back, Steve Slaton, has said that he wants to stay at West Virginia for two more
years, even though he could enter the draft in 2008, too. Then again, no
one has worked on his mom yet to give up the goods as to what he really
plans to do.
POSTED 8:31
p.m. EDT; LAST UPDATED 11:34 p.m. EDT, August 10, 2007
RUSSELL BUYS A HOUSE IN OAKLAND
Though there's no end in sight to
his holdout, the No. 1 overall pick in the draft has bought a house in the town
where his new team plays.
Russell has missed 19 practices in
a squabble over both money and contract structure.
THE ALL-SEINFELD TEAM
Inspired by a suggestion from Todd
Wright of Sporting News Radio, here's our first ever
All-Seinfeld Team, a list of NFL figures and
their corresponding character from the Seinfeld series.
This is an evolving roster.
If you can think of any more, let us
know.
BRATTON STAYING PUT?
Earlier this week, there were
strong rumors that recruiter Melvin Bratton was leaving (or already had left)
the firm of Lock, Metz & Malinovic, and that unsigned Raiders quarterback
JaMarcus Russell could ultimately decide to follow Bratton to his new landing
spot.
The current talk on the league
grapevine is that Bratton has received a sweetened deal from LMM, and likely
will stay put.
Stay tuned.
If Russell changes agencies, he'll
be required to wait five days before formally signing with the new shop.
NO. 28 IS UP
Five days, five teams.
We're working our way up the NFL
ladder as we preview every team, in the order of worst to first.
The starting quarterback for the
Browns' preseason opener
will be determined by a
coin flip. (In an unrelated story, Romeo Crennel chose sausage over
pizza for dinner tonight because the sausage has a "quicker release.")
Browns coach Romeo Crennel called
rookie Brady Quinn "frisky."
(What, did Quinn try to
grab Romeo's crotch?)
But isn't that "performing
services"? And at what point does TNA get itself in trouble for inducing
Jones to breach his contract and/or aiding and abetting the violation of a court
order?
(Answer: "Who cares?
We're making a sh-tload of money off of this.")
This thing could get ugly, fast.
If it appears that the order will be violated, law enforcement officials could
be dispatched to physically prevent Jones from appearing at the event.
Hopefully, the TNA folks will have
plenty of cameras outside the arena.
Until Jones beats back that TRO,
this will be all we see of him on TNA.
MORE FAKE FOOTBALL, FOR YOUR
ENJOYMENT
If you're like us (and, if you
are, please convey our condolences to your family members), you hate preseason
football. But, if you're like us, you also will feel compelled to watch
because, hey, it looks and sounds like NFL football. Besides, what the
hell else is on?
It is, but it isn't. And yet
we'll still watch tonight. Tomorrow night. Sunday night.
Monday night.
With so many additional preseason
games coming up, it probably makes sense for us to drop right here our PFTV
segement about the first preseason contest -- the Hall of Fame game from Sunday
night. Before it gets even more stale.
POSTED 4:59
p.m. EDT, August 10, 2007
"HARD JUSTICE" FOR PACMAN
The Tennessee Titans have taken
legal action to prevent cornerback Pacman Jones from climbing into a wrestling
ring.
Although the media reports aren't
clear (because journalists typically aren't lawyers), it appears that a
judge has issued a
temporary restraining order to prevent Jones from entering the ring during
Sunday's night's TNA pay-per-view event, ironically dubbed Hard Justice.
"Today we filed a motion in
Williamson County asking for a court order preventing Jones from participating
in any wrestling activity," the Titans said in a statement. "All NFL
players have language in their contracts that prohibit them from engaging in
activities 'which may involve a significant risk of personal injury.' We
certainly believe wrestling to be hazardous and it is obvious from the player's
conduct that he is ignoring this aspect of his agreements with the club.
As an organization, we feel it is our obligation to protect our rights in this
instance."
Per media reports, the judge has
set the case for a hearing. At the hearing, the Titans most likely will
ask the court to convert the temporary restraining order to what's known as a
"temporary injunction" or a "preliminary injunction." If such an
injunction is issued, Jones will be prevented from wrestling until the case is
fully resolved on the merits.
The bar for getting a preliminary
injunction is a high one. The party seeking such relief must show, among
other things, that it will suffer harm that cannot later be remedied by money
damages if the preliminary injunction is not issued. Also, the party
seeking the preliminary injunction must show a strong likelihood that it
ultimately will win the case.
It's possible for a preliminary
injunction to be denied, but for the party seeking the injunction to later
prevail.
Also, the fact that a temporary
restraining order was entered doesn't mean a whole lot at this point. Such
orders often are obtained without the defendant even being involved in the
process, and are aimed at freezing the situation in place until the court can
address whether a preliminary injunction should be entered.
It's not yet known whether the
suit is against Jones or TNA, or both. If the suit is against Jones only,
Jones could argue that the proper remedy would be to file a non-injury grievance
under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and to seek an expedited hearing.
However, it's highly unlikely that the pursuit of a grievance by the team would
have resulted in a ruling blocking Jones from wrestling on Sunday night.
Finally, we suspect that the
Titans have taken this step with, at a minimum, a discreet nod from the league
office. And that tells us that Pacman can go ahead and make plans for
every Sunday from early November through the end of the year, because he
undoubtedly won't be working on any of those days.
POSTED 3:10
p.m. EDT, August 10, 2005
GOODELL PONDERING VICK GAMBLING
ANGLE
Though the NFL and the media
haven't had much to say about the gambling aspects of Mike Vick's indictment on
federal conspiracy charges, that all could be changing.
Asked whether the details of the
dog-fighting operation has overshadowed the fact that it was, in essence, a
gambling enterprise, Commissioner Roger Goodell told USA Today, "Not
from our standpoint."
"Listen, we're sickened by the
allegations and the predicament Michael put himself in," Goodell said.
"But there are a lot of things in the indictment that concern the NFL that may
not be of a greater concern from a law enforcement standpoint."
The league's gambling policy is a
stand-alone document, and its principles pop up in the Standard Player Contract.
Knowingly associating with gamblers or with gambling activity is enough to get a
player in serious trouble, including banned for life. Vick currently is
accused of funding a dog-fighting operation in which the owners of the two
canines put up an equal amount of money, and the winner took the pot.
There are also indications that
Goodell's ongoing review of the situation isn't necessarily focused on whether
Vick is legally guilty of the precise charges that have been made against him.
Instead, because Vick flatly denied to the Commissioner in April that any dog
fighting was occurring on Vick's property, the Commissioner might have enough
proof to justify imposing discipline under the conduct policy if he merely
concludes that dog-fighting happened there, regardless of Vick's level of
involvement.
"Now I have to compare that to the
facts as best I can," Goodell said, "and try to understand, 'Is this accurate
what he told me? Is it inaccurate?'"
If the admission of guilty of Tony
Taylor is to be given any credence, then Vick's words were inaccurate.
The Commissioner isn't bound by
the notions of due process; the union already has bargained away any such
rights. Thus, Goodell can conduct his own investigation, make his own
determination, impose discipline, and then review the decision on appeal.
Of course, it doesn't mean that
Goodell won't be fair. We think he will. But we also think he has
enough evidence to conclude that Vick has done enough to merit a stiff
punishment under the terms of the Personal Conduct Policy, which aimed to
prevent players from undermining the integrity or public perception of the game
of professional football.
And when Goodell imposes
discipline before the legal proceedings are concluded, we wonder whether all of
the members of the "real" media who presumed that the Personal Conduct Policy
prevents such an outcome for first-time offenders will acknowledge their error.
POSTED 1:04
p.m. EDT, August 10, 2007
IRONS OUT FOR SEASON
Bengals rookie running back Kenny
Irons has pulled a Ki-Jana Carter.
Irons, the team's second-round
pick in the 2007 draft,
tore an ACL in
the preseason opener against the Lions on Thursday night.
As Bengals.com points out,
Carter's torn ACL came against the Lions as well, in a 1995 preseason game.
Carter was the first overall selection in the draft that year.
The team hoped that Irons would
perform better than 2004 first-round selection Chris Perry, whose career as the
backup to Rudi Johnson has been marred by injury. Perry currently is on
the PUP list.
There's a growing belief in league
circles that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will not allow Pacman Jones to
return to the NFL in 2007 due to Jones' decision to use his suspension to become
a pro wrestler.
Said one source, "The Commissioner
doesn't want suspended players to make a mockery of the game."
And Jones is making a mockery of
the game, and of himself. His interviews have been even more laughable
than usual, and his public statements also show no appreciation -- at all -- of
the gravity of his current situation.
Meanwhile, who in the hell is
giving Jones advice? Is it his lawyer, Manny Arora? Is it his agent,
Michael Huyghue? Or it is Pacman's personalized Magic 8 ball that includes
answers like "make it rain," "bite someone," and "go get your gun"?
As to Huyghue, we're amazed that
he has sat idly by while Jones has continued to push the shovel into the rock
bottom of his own personal hole. Did Huyghue, a former front-office exec
who should be able to appreciate why the league might not be comfortable with
Pacman's new hobby, agree with this course of action? If Huyghue didn't,
then why does he continue to be a party to the Jones camp?
Either way, Huyghue surely is
losing respect around the league for continuing to be associated with this
slowly-unfolding train wreck.
We're also intrigued by an item in
Thursday's Nashville Tennessean, in which Vegas strip club bouncer George
Petraski openly wonders whether
TNA is setting Jones up to be injured by wrestlers who are out for revenge
after the February incident that resulted in the shooting of former wrestler
Tommy Urbanski.
"Maybe the joke might be on Pacman,"
Petraski said. "Because [TNA co-founder] Jeff [Jarrett] knew us and he
knew Tom and maybe he is saying, 'Hey, this guy is a clown, let's get him in
here and hurt him.'
"In the wrestling business it's
called a 'shoot,' and that is when it is real, when they try and take you out.
A lot of guys know Tom, and us guys in wrestling are like a clique. They
might beat Pacman into submission."
Hey, that possibility might do
more for TNA's pay-per-view revenues than anything that TNA could ever do on its
own.
TITANS' CASE WOULD BE STRONG
A few readers have scoffed at the
notion that pro wrestling violates Paragraph 3 of the Standard Player Contract,
which prohibits a player from engaging in "any activity other than football
which may involve a significant risk of personal injury."
As one reader argued, pro
wrestling doesn't involve a "significant" risk of personal injury because few
pro wrestlers actually suffer "significant injury." Instead, they emerge
at best with a smattering of bumps and bruises.
But that's not what the contract
says. Jones, and every NFL player, may not engage in any activity that
"may involve a significant risk of personal injury." The contract doesn't
say that players are prohibited from engaging in activities that "may involve a
risk of significant injury."
The difference is, well,
significant. Surely, there's a significant risk that pro wrestlers will
suffer "personal injury." The contract doesn't place a degree on the term
"personal injury." And while some might resort to the "you can get hurt
doing anything" routine, the key is whether the activity entails a "significant
risk" of any injury.
Apart from the plain language of
the contract, as further honed by the application of common sense, we suspect
that Jones' contract with TNA contains language like this: "Jones realizes
that professional wrestling entails a significant risk of personal injury, and
Jones fully and freely accepts this risk." TNA would use that language to
limit its liability in the event that Jones is actually injured, and the Titans
would then be able to turn that language around and use it against TNA and
Pacman.
So, as we suggested earlier in the
day, the question for the Titans isn't whether they'd successfully shut down
Jones' wrestling "career." We think that if the blue-suited sharks at
Covington & Burling get the order to proceed, an injunction would quickly be
issued. The real question is whether they even want to dignify Pacman
and/or the "sport" by pursuing legal options.
POSTED 10:36
a.m. EDT, August 10, 2007
ALLEN CEMENTS STATUS ON
ALL-TIME, ALL-TURD TEAM
As our old friend Dante always
says, "Once a turd, always a turd."
Lately, that theory has been
proven to be true by Pacman Jones, who simply doesn't (and never will)
understand the cause-and-effect relationship between his behavior and the
consequences of it.
But there's another guy who hasn't
learned anything from a string of anti-social actions.
Chiefs defensive end Jared Allen
has had plenty of problems over the years, culminating in a two-game suspension
resulting from his most recent DUI arrest. And while the stuff that goes
on off the field troubles us because it subjects innocent citizens to injury or
worse (see Leonard Little), we don't have much patience for guys who use
the haze of full-contact football as cover for intentionally attempting to
injure other players.
Allen doesn't see it that way.
HBO's Hard Knocks crew caught Allen advising a rookie that the best way
to get an offensive lineman to stop holding is to "[j]ust
kick him in the [groin]."
Yeah, rook. Anytime anyone
is doing something you don't like, don't raise it with the game officials.
Just kick him in the groin.
Maybe we can apply that principle
to other day-to-day situations. If someone cuts in front of you at
the movies, just kick him in the groin. If a guy goes to the "15 items or
less" register with 16 or more, just kick him in the groin. If your son
doesn't clean up his room fast enough for you, just kick him in the groin.
We realize that football attracts
guys who are inclined to kick other people in the groin, but at a time when the
fans and the media are beginning to expect these men to act like something other
than wild animals, we think that the teams and the league should be a bit more
sensitive to the message that is being sent.
Especially when the editors of the
Hard Knocks series are considering whether to provide the nuances of
Jared Allen's D-line techniques to any kids in the audience who might be trying
to figure out how to get the offensive linemen on their pee-wee teams to quit
holding.
(And thanks to MDS for noticing
this nugget from Allen in the Kansas City Star article to which we linked
on Thursday morning in our item about the Larry Johnson holdout.)
FRIDAY MORNING TRAINING CAMP
ONE-LINERS by Michael
David Smith
WR Calvin Johnson
used his 6-foot-5 frame to beat CB Leon Hall, the Bengals' 5-foot-11
first-round pick, for a jump ball in the second quarter.
The Cowboys want S Roy Williams to
line up near the line of scrimmage more often, but they couldn't do that
Thursday night against the Colts' three-receiver sets.
Rookie OT Doug Free, starting in
place of the injured Flozell Adams,
sprained his knee
in the third quarter.
LB Brian Urlacher
was held out of practice for the third consecutive day Thursday, and he's
unlikely to play in Saturday's preseason opener.
Bears C Olin Kreutz
lined up at tight end in training camp practice and dropped a pass in the
end zone from QB Chris Leak.
The Packers had three straight
picks in the sixth round of this year's draft, and
all three players looked good in Thursday's practice.
Packers offensive coordinator Joe
Philbin says of the team's young offensive linemen, "they've
made some strides."
Vikings assistant coach George
Stewart is working to get WR Troy Williamson to
reach his full potential.
(We'd settle for Williams cathing at least one of every two passes that hit his
hands.)
LT Bryant McKinnie heard the
Chiefs' defensive line talking trash on HBO's Hard Knocks and said, "I'm
going to remember that."
Panthers rookie WR Ryne Robinson
is expected to handle the kick return duties in Carolina, but he hasn't
addressed the subject with former kick returner Steve Smith because "I
know he still has got that chip on his shoulder about [returning kicks]."
With Bucs FB Mike Alstott out for
the season and likely done for good, Tampa Bay now has
five players left who started in Super Bowl XXXVII: RB Michael
Pittman, LB Derrick Brooks, DE Greg Spires, and CBs Ronde Barber and Brian
Kelly.
DE Bryce Fisher is
making the
adjustment from the left side of the line to the right.
POSTED 7:25
a.m. EDT; LAST UPDATED 8:20 a.m. EDT, August 10, 2007
PACMAN MAKES WRESTLING DEBUT,
SORT OF
Titans cornerback Pacman Jones
officially began his relationship with TNA wrestling on Thursday night, with
several video segments played throughout the course of a one-hour show on Spike
TV.
Per Jim Wyatt of the Nashville
Tennessean,
Jones did not wrestle. Instead, he made five pre-taped appearances
during breaks in the "action," and his name was mentioned several times as part
of the promotion of an upcoming pay-per-view event called Hard Justice.
(Sounds like the title of a movie that would be shown at a location other than
the local multiplex.)
And, predictably, it's during
Hard Justice on Sunday night that the plans for Pacman Jones will be
announced.
"You don't know me. Nobody
knows me,'' Jones said at one point during the show. "Nobody knows who I
am.'' (Man, he doesn't know how accurate that statement is, especially if
the term "nobody" is broad enough to include Pacman.)
During a segment that showed Jones
engaging in activities like shadow boxing (which always comes handy in the
wrestling ring), Jones said words like "misunderstood, player, team player, game
breaker, risk taker, a man, and team player."
The repeated reference to "team
player," which Jones also said during a recent NBCSports.com interview, along
with his stated goal of "winning" the TNA tag team title tells us that Pacman
will be the member of a two-man crew in the ring.
We have a feeling that it won't be
quite the same as Chief Jay Strongbow and Billy Whitewolf.
WILL THE TITANS SUE JONES, TNA?
There's an interesting angle to
this Pacman sideshow that is buried in Jim Wyatt's article regarding Jones'
wrestling debut. Wyatt speculates that the Titans could "file
an injunction" if Pacman's wrestling activities become too intense.
(Technically, a party doesn't "file an injunction." It files a lawsuit
seeking an injunction.) Indeed, coach Jeff Fisher recently said that
Jones' contract doesn't permit him to wrestle.
But wrestle Pacman apparently
will. (Okay, who in the hell let Yoda in here?)
The Titans appear to be correct in
their beliefs. Paragraph 3 of the Standard Player Contract states that, "[w]ithout
prior written consent of the Club, Player will not play football or engage in
activities related to football otherwise than for Club or engage in any activity
other than football which may involve a significant risk of personal injury."
Jones apparently interprets this
language as meaning that he only gets in trouble if he actually gets injured.
"In the contract, nothing could possibly stop anything unless you get hurt,''
Jones said. "I don't even look at getting hurt. That is not a worry
of mine.''
Actually, the goal of the language
is to ensure that a player doesn't get hurt by preventing him from engaging in
any activities that may involve a significant risk of personal injury.
So the real question is whether pro wrestling, even if scripted, possibly
involves a significant risk of personal injury to its participants.
Common sense suggests that it
does.
Think of it this way. Even
though pro wrestling isn't real, the wrestlers engage in very real physical
activities. They're like actors who do their own stunts.
So does being a Hollywood stuntman
possibly involve a significant risk of personal injury? The answer to that
question answers whether Jones is running afoul of his contract.
But the dilemma for the Titans and
the NFL is whether to ignore Jones' antics, or whether to file a lawsuit and
create even more buzz for Pacman's new cause.
Our guess is that the Titans and
the NFL will exercise restraint, and that Jones will get his just desserts for
breaching his contract on the back end, when for example Pacman tries to return
to the NFL after only 10 games of his full-season suspension.
At a minimum, there's no way he
gets to play NFL football in 2007. And we've got a feeling that the league
eventually will have a plan in place to pile drive Pacman's NFL career,
permanently.
TIMMONS GETS A SHOT TO THE
GROIN
Linebacker Lawrence Timmons was
the 15th overall pick in the NFL draft. But he suffered a groin injury
early in offseason practices, and he aggravated the condition early in training
camp.
Meanwhile, linebacker LaMarr
Woodley, the Steelers' second-round selection, has arguably played his way into
a starting role with the team.
In an effort to get back onto the
field, Timmons got a second opinion from a specialist in Philly. The
doctor gave Timmons
an injection to the groin (cringe) in order to speed the healing
process.
"We feel like there's a
breakthrough in this process with him, and now it's just about starting the
process of crawling him back to full participation," coach Mike Tomlin said.
"We're looking forward to getting that started."
The time for Timmons' return isn't
known, but the doctor confirmed that the injury is merely a groin strain, not a
sports hernia or a torn muscle.
REESE TAKES OVER FOR JAWS
The Eagles have announced that
former linebacker Ike Reese will replace Ron Jaworski as the analyst for the
team's preseason games.
"We are happy
to bring Ike back to be part of the team," Eagles president Joe Banner said in a
statement. "We know he will bring the same energy to the broadcast that he
brought to the locker room."
Jaworski, a
former Eagles quarterback (yeah, some of our readers are under the age of 20),
has been hired by ESPN to join Mike Tirico and Tony Kornheiser in the Monday
Night Football booth.
A WEEK WITHOUT WIRELESS?
NO WAY
In an effort to give us all a
sense of how important our wireless devices have become to our day-to-day lives,
seven employees of Sprint and Nextel have given up their hand-held phones for a
week. They'll be writing about their experiences next week
right here.
"You really think about all the
things you take for granted," Sprint spokesperson Roni Singleton told
WirelessWeek. Singleton said that one employee no longer had her daily
schedule at her fingertips. Another employee who used the Sprint phone as
a daily alarm clock had to find another way to wake up in the morning.
(Actually, we find our Sprint phone to be the most reliable alarm clock money
can buy, especially when the neighbor's hot tub blows out the fuse box.)
Though we survived (somehow) as a
species in the decades before we all had phones in our pockets, the notion of
not having a wireless device constantly available is nearly unthinkable for most
of us now.
We take them everywhere, and for
good reason. They allow us to be constantly in touch with our families,
friends, and co-workers, if something unexpected should come up. In a
power outage, it's often the only link to the outside world. And is there
really a better way to kill time when the wife is shopping than to check e-mail
and/or watch NFL Network highlights (exclusively on Sprint's NFL Mobile package)
and/or scan the weather radar for an approaching storm that could be used as the
basis of an argument to get her to quit trying on all those damn shoes so that
you can get home before the thing hits?
We'll be checking out the blogs
from the Sprint employees who went Sprint-less for a week, and we'll share some
of their anecdotes here.
Meanwhile, don't subject yourself
to the same fate. If you don't have wireless service, get it right now.
With Sprint or Nextel. And if you have wireless service with someone other
than Sprint or Nextel, why haven't you switched yet?
Sprint and Nextel are, by the way,
the official telecommunications sponsors of ProFootballTalk.
Adam Schefter of NFL Network
reports that rookie running back Marshawn Lynch is on track to be the
opening-day starter in Buffalo.
Lynch has drawn comparisons to
recent Hall of Fame inductee Thurman Thomas, a legendary Bills tailback who was
a weapon in both the running game and the passing game.
The former Cal starter was the
second running back taken in the 2007 draft, and some feared that he might slide
to the bottom of the first round. As it stands, the Bills likely will be
more than pleased that they invested the 12th overall pick in upgrading a
position that was vacated by the trade of Willis McGahee.
NO. 29 IS UP
We're working our way up the NFL
totem pole. In four days, we've posted the bottom four teams in the
league's current pecking order, as we see it.
They'll keep coming, one per day,
until they're done.
POSTED 9:15
p.m. EDT, August 9, 2007
McGINEST GOING UNDER THE KNIFE
Browns linebacker Willie McGinest
was scheduled to
undergo surgery on Thursday afternoon to repair a bulging disk in his back.
The surgery was to be performed in
California, which seems like a prudent move in the wake of the rash of post-op
staph infections among Browns players who had operations in Cleveland.
McGinest will be evaluated after
six weeks, and could be available at the end of September.
Antwan Peek will assume McGinest's
role as the starting left outside linebacker.
Another Cleveland outside
linebacker, Matt Stewart, had surgery to repair a torn labrum and is expected to
be placed on injured reserve.
OBAFEMI AYANBADEJO SUSPENDED
FOUR GAMES by Michael
David Smith
Bears fullback Obafemi Ayanbadejo
has been
suspended four games for violating the league's policy on anabolic steroids
and related substances.
Ayanbadejo, who
signed with the Bears on June 12, says he tested positive in January and
found out about it in April, while he was still with the Cardinals.
Ayanbadejo says the positive test is the reason the Cardinals released him, and
the Bears signed him knowing about the test.
"I did my best to fight it but it
got me cut by Arizona," Ayanbadejo said. "After that I explained the
situation to Chicago and the organization believed me and gave me a chance to
come and compete here, which I appreciate very much."
According to the Chicago
Tribune, Ayanbadejo says he tested positive for a banned substance that was
contained in an over-the-counter supplement called MaxLMG.
"It's unfortunate that someone like myself, who didn't take a steroid, tested
positive," Ayanbadejo tells the Tribune. "But it was an
anti-estrogen substance that I wasn't aware was in the product and that's
something that's on the league's list."
Ayanbadejo, whose brother Brendan also plays for the Bears, can play in the
preseason but must sit out the first four games of 2007.
[Editor's note: What's next? A statement from the Commish about all of the steroids
tests that Ayanbadejo has passed during his career?]
The Orlando Sentinel is
reporting that the announcement will be that
Alstott is retiring.
The 33-year-old Alstott played 11
seasons in the NFL, all with Tampa Bay. He has 5,088 career rushing yards and
2,284 career receiving yards, and he's first in franchise history with 71
touchdowns. He was chosen to six straight Pro Bowls from 1997 to 2002.
In 2003 Alstott suffered a serious
neck injury, and since then he has averaged just 2.8 yards on 161 carries.
Alstott has missed the last three days of training camp. It's not clear to what
extent injuries are contributing to his decision to retire today.
UPDATE: Alstott did
not announce his retirement; he announced that
he will miss the 2007 season as he goes on injured reserve with a neck
injury, and that he will decide after further medical tests whether he'll play
next year.
POSTED 10:43
a.m. EDT, August 9, 2007
PACMAN JONES GIVES DISASTROUS
INTERVIEW by Michael David
Smith
There's an old saying that it's
better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than to open it and
remove all doubt. Apparently Pacman Jones has not heard that old saying.
Jones, the suspended Titans
cornerback, appeared on ESPN2's First Take this morning to promote his
appearance tonight with the TNA pro wrestling outfit, and he made a complete
fool of himself.
Any P.R. person would have told
Jones that if he's going to speak publicly at all, he needs to show contrition
for the numerous off-field activities that have gotten him banned for the 2007
season. Instead, he began the interview by suggesting that his off-field
problems are overblown. First Take led into the interview with a
pre-packaged report about Jones' arrest record, and Jones disputed the report.
"Everybody keeps saying I've been
arrested six times," Jones said. "I haven't been arrested six times.
I've only been arrested twice. I've been accused and people have put
warrants out on me numerous other times, but as of today I'm on no probation, I
haven't been charged with anything, so I'm just keeping my head up and making
sure I'm doing everything to make sure I'm alright with myself."
Really, Pacman?
You haven't been
charged with anything? It's a good thing you're "alright with
yourself", because neither your employer nor law enforcement authorities are
"alright with you."
When asked if he visited a strip
club the night before meeting with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Jones said,
"I was in a strip club. I did go in to get something to eat. If I
could do anything different, I wouldn't have went and gotten nothing to eat
then. There wasn't even no girls in there."
The way Jones said that, with a
sheepish smile on his face, suggested that his biggest regret is that there
weren't any girls at the club.
The whole interview went on like
that, and if Goodell was watching, he must have thought this: Make all the
money you can in pro wrestling, Pacman, because you'll never play in the NFL
again.
POSTED 10:02
a.m. EDT, August 9, 2007
BRADY QUINN CONFIDENT HE'LL
START THIS YEAR by Michael
David Smith
Quarterback Brady Quinn held out
for the first eleven days of the Browns' training camp, but when asked on
Wednesday if he'll start this year, he answered, "Without
a doubt."
However, the Cleveland Plain-Dealer reports that he was less confident in
his ability to start the regular-season opener.
"I think it's up to the coaching staff," Quinn said. "There are some things you
can't control. All I can do is come in, try to catch back up and do the
best I can."
The absolute worst thing Quinn
could do right now, after angering lots of Browns fans with his holdout, is act
as though he's entitled to the starting job. So while the "without a doubt"
quote might have been intended to show confidence, the "it's up to the coaching
staff" quote is probably more along the lines of what he should be saying right
now.
When asked if there's a risk that
fans will perceive Quinn as a spoiled kid, he responded, "You never want to come
off as [spoiled]. If anyone knew me, they wouldn't say those words."
Browns fans will get to know him
in the coming years and make their own judgment.
Note: The Plain-Dealer refers to Quinn's contract as "a
seven-year deal worth $20.2 million, including a $7.75 million signing bonus.
The deal can escalate to $30 million based on playing time." To reiterate
what PFT Editor Mike Florio has reported, the deal isn't seven years, the $20.2
million figure is bogus, the $7.75 million guarantee isn't a signing bonus, and
the $30 million figure is even more bogus than the $20.2 million figure.
Other than that, the
Plain-Dealer got it right.
THURSDAY MORNING TRAINING CAMP
ONE LINERS by Michael
David Smith
OLB DeMarcus Ware is doing
Karate Kid-style training to work on his hand placement. (But,
unfortunately, he has a slightly different interpretation of the "wax off"
move.)
Kawika Mitchell has moved from
middle linebacker with the Chiefs to weakside linebacker with the Giants, and he
says of the new position, "It's
actually a little bit easier."
Eagles coach Andy Reid
is a big fan of rookie TE Brent Celek.
Redskins coach Joe Gibbs says of C
Casey Rabach, "he's one of the
most valuable people on our team."
S Pierson Prioleau was so
disgusted with how the Redskins played last season that
he didn't even watch the games on TV as he sat at home with a knee injury.
Falcons QB Joey Harrington will
get the first 10 to 12 plays Friday night, and then backups Chris Redman and
D.J. Shockley will get the rest of the game to show who should be No. 2.
QB Jeff Garcia says that before he
signed with the Bucs, the mental drag of moving from team to team each year
"started to take all the
fun out of the experience of being on the field."
The Cardinals have
three undrafted rookie fullbacks on the roster, but they haven't decided if
they'll keep any fullbacks besides starter Terrelle Smith.
After taking some hard hits during
practice, Rams RB Steven Jackson said, "I think you should
take care of your feature back."
Coach Scott Linehan says of rookie
DT Adam Carriker, "He's ready. He's worked with the [first team] from the
get-go and never looked out of place.
It'll be fun to watch him play."
POSTED 7:29
a.m. EDT; LAST UPDATED 8:02 a.m. EDT, August 9, 2007
THE FORGOTTEN HOLDOUT
There are only two rookies who
aren't in camp (Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell, Jets cornerback Darrelle
Revis), one unsigned veteran (Pats cornerback Asante Samuel), and two veterans
who are under contract (Giants defensive end Michael Strahan and Chiefs running
back Larry Johnson).
The dispute that arguably has
gotten the least attention, at least nationally, is the one that arguably should
get the most: the L.J. holdout.
One of the reasons for the Johnson
holdout getting so little play is that neither side is saying very much
publicly. And the media isn't writing much on the topic, even though the
Chiefs would be a dramatically different team with their featured back out of
the lineup.
But while the principals of the
dispute, Johnson and Chiefs G.M. Carl Peterson, are regarded as two of the most
hard-headed figures in the NFL, the sense that this one won't get worked out
anytime soon has yet to take root in the football-watching consciousness.
The holdout wasa big issue
in Wednesday night's debut of HBO's Hard Knocks series, and the attention
to the tug-o-war between tailback and team could increase because of it.
Still, it's not like the issue
came off as being all that sexy during the premiere episode.
For one thing, Johnson didn't
sound like a guy who is all that strong in his resolve to stay away.
"A
lot of times I wish I was with my teammates,"
Johnson said during the show, according to the Kansas
City Star. "I've never been a fan of the
holdout process . . . [but] Earl Campbellonly played six years. I could be like
that. Be on top and then. . . ."
Actually,
Campbell played eight seasons. But you get the
idea. There's a finite number of years in which a
guy can get pounded around with the ball in his hands
before injury or ineffectiveness inevitably set in.
The most
intriguing development in the dispute to date might have
been the declaration from former Chiefs go-to guy Priest
Holmes, who said that, if L.J. doesn't want to come in
and get paid to be the guy, Holmes will do it.
"Somebody
has to get the money," Holmes said. "Hey, if
L.J. wants to leave the money out there, guess I'm going
to take it. If he wants to come get it, it's
rightfully his to take. He's earned it. But
if he chooses not to come back, well, somebody has to
take it. Why won't it be me?"
One reason
it won't be Priest is because the team has told him that
he'll be used in limited fashion. And because
Holmes' comments tend to have the effect of putting some
public pressure on Johnson to cave, the Chiefs might
find that they need to dump Holmes if/when Johnson shows
up with a strong desire to cram a cleat down Priest's
throat.
(Then
again, Holmes is a bargain for the Chiefs -- at some
point in the past several months, he reduced his salary
from $4 million to $870,000. As Jason Whitlock of
the Kansas City Star noted recently,
Holmes probably would earn more money on the free-agent
market.)
But while
it seems that the Chiefs and L.J. will eventually
resolve their differences, there's no apparent end in
sight to the standoff. Johnson wants to rip up the
final year of a contract that pays him a paltry $1.7
million this year, and the Chiefs don't want to pay him
the kind of huge money that he wants at a position that
has been de-valued over the past several season. A
trade is still an option, but if the Chiefs won't give
L.J. what he wants, why will another team do so,
especially since another team would have to also cough
up enough players and/or picks to placate Peterson?
So while
no one seems to be talking very much about the Johnson
holdout, it possibly could be the one that lasts as long
as any, with Johnson not showing up until week ten of
the regular season, so that he'll then have a chance to
become a free agent in 2008.
Before, of
course, the Chiefs use the franchise tag on him, and we
get to do it all over again.
In a
recent item on CBSSportsline.com regarding Michael
Strahan's retirement deliberations (or, as most believe,
his holdout that he's trying desperately not to have
called a holdout), Mike Freeman notes that
Strahan's name already has been expunged from the
NFL.com database.
We checked
it, and Freeman is on the money. Under "S", right
between "Stover" and "Strait,"
there's nothing.
But,
apparently, it's a device used by NFL.com only as to
players who choose not to honor their existing
contracts. Because
Larry
Johnson's name doesn't show up in the "J" listing,
either.
Indeed,
unsigned holdouts are listed. Like
Darrelle Revis. And
JaMarcus Russell. And
Asante Samuel. But, technically, none of those
players are members right now of the teams listed next
to their names.
It seems
unusual to us that someone within the league office
would apparently go to the affirmative effort of
removing those who disregard their contractual
obligations from the alphabetical listing of players.
But we kind of like it. If the player chooses not
to live up to the terms of the agreement to which he
signed his name, there should be consequences, even
relatively insignificant ones like a refusal by the
league to acknowledge their existence.
RUNNING
BACK RANKINGS ARE UP
Our
quarterback fantasy
rankings generated a ton of chatter from readers.
And one or two of the e-mails didn't question our sanity
based on the manner in which we listed the various
signal-callers.
Still to
come -- receivers, tight ends, kickers, defenses, and
long snappers. (Okay, we're kidding. About
the kickers.)
POSTED 9:39
p.m. EDT; LAST UPDATED 11:10 p.m. EDT, August 8, 2007
DOES PACMAN THINK WRESTLING IS
REAL?
Titans cornerback Pacman Jones is
going to spend his exile from the NFL as a pro wrestler. Despite some
stated concerns from the franchise as to whether Jones' contract permits such
activities, Jones apparently intends to go through with it, as evidenced by an
interview he recently gave to NBCSports.com.
As further evidenced by the
interview, Pacman apparently thinks that wrestling is real.
He says that his goal in wrestling
is to win the TNA World Tag Team Championship. "I want to prove that I am
the greatest team sport athlete," Jones said. "I really want to show that
I'm a team player."
No, really. He said that.
Of course, as to the Titans'
legimate concerns regarding
whether wrestling constitutes a breach of Pacman's NFL contract, Pac proves
once again that he's anything but a true team player.
"They really don't know what goes
on in wrestling; they just see it on TV," Jones said. "I'm sure they are
scared but I'll be alright [sic]. What I do with my time is up to me."
See, Pac, this is where you're
wrong. It's that very attitude that has gotten in you in the predicament
you now face, and unless and until you fundamentally change that mind set, the
only thing you'll even win is whatever the wrestling writers choose to let you
win.
HITTING THE NFL PAUSE BUTTON
We don't follow baseball and pay
little or no attention to it, but we had to stop for a second to share this
picture we received of the Barry Bonds' rookie card.
We have no idea who made it, and
we suspect that it's one of those things that will migrate on the web as
rampantly as that picture of a dog trying to bite Mike Vick in the ass as he
runs out of bounds.
Still, we laughed our asses off
over this one.
NO. 30 IS UP
We've posted our third preseason
preview, a quick rundown of the team we regard as the No. 30 in the overall
hierarchy of NFL franchises.
After the top two quarterbacks
screwed up on Wednesday during a two-minute drill, coach Gary Kubiak got the
team together
to tell them
to minimize mistakes.
QB Byron Leftwich
will get about 15
snaps in the preseason opener, and backup David Garrad will get 15-20.
Broncos WR Rod Smith and WR
Brandon Marshall are
still sidelined.
Raiders offensive coordinator Greg
Knapp will work
from the press box. (It's closer to a toilet in the event he gets
nauseous.)
POSTED 9:18
p.m. EDT, August 8, 2007
NFL CANCELS QUARTERBACK
CHALLENGE AND NO ONE NOTICES
The National Football League
pulled the plug on ESPN's broadcast of the 2007 Quarterback Challenge.
The show was supposed to air
initially on Friday, August 3, and presumably would have been replayed more than
Barry Bonds' 756th home (yawn) run. According to the Caymanian Compass,
the NFL's decision arose from
the
involvement of Michael Vick in the competition that was conducted on May 19,
less than a month after dogs and dog-fighting equipment were removed from Vick's
secluded Virginia property.
The move isn't surprising.
What is surprising to us is that no one noticed.
We heard in May that Josh McCown
of the Raiders won the competition.
POSTED 9:02
p.m. EDT, August 8, 2007
HUARD HAS INSIDE TRACK?
Adam Schefter of NFL Network
suggests that Damon Huard could be the favorite to start the season as the
starting quarterback for the Chiefs, primarily because of the schedule.
Three of the first four games of
the season are on the road, including games at San Diego and Chicago. This
could prompt coach Herm Edwards to opt for experience in the early phase of the
season. Huard played well last year after Trent Green suffered a severe
concussion in Week One.
But it's clear that Edwards is
hoping that Croyle will eventually win the job. He'll get more reps with
the first-team offense during the preseason in the hopes that he'll be ready to
roll sooner rather than later.
POSTED 5:56
p.m. EDT, August 8, 2007
WESTBROOK IS AT A FUNERAL
A league source tells us that
running back Brian Westbrook is absent from Eagles camp because he's at a
funeral.
With that said, we're confused as
to why coach Andy Reid didn't simply say so on Wednesday, instead of creating
the impression that something akin to T.O.'s 2005 ticket home had gone down.
Presumably, Westbrook will return
soon.
POSTED 5:45
p.m. EDT, August 8, 2007
NOTHING SPECIAL ABOUT THE QUINN
DEAL
On the surface, Browns quarterback
Brady Quinn leapfrogged the guy drafted in front of him with guaranteed money of
$7.75 million and apparently jumped several spots higher with a base package of
$20.2 million.
We've previously exposed the flaws
regarding the reports about the base package, which per NFL rules would have had
a maximum value of $8.55 million.
We're now told that the base value
is $9.2 million, since the extra money comes from a one-time incentive based on
achieving minimum playing time (i.e., 35 percent of all offensive snaps)
in the amount of $1.323 million. Some league insiders refer to this
payment as the "falling off of a log" bonus, since the guy doesn't need to do
anything other than show up and play football to earn it.
We're also told that the base
value with the "log" bonus isn't higher than $9.2 million because the contract
doesn't max out the potential salaries in the final years of the deal, in light
of the rule that prohibits annual growth from exceeding 25 percent of the
first-year pay, excluding any signing bonus proration.
So where does the base value fall
in comparison to the players drafted around him? The No. 21 overall pick,
Jags safety Reggie Nelson, has a base package of $9.55 million. The No. 23
selection, Chiefs receiver Dwayne Bowe, has a base value of $9 million.
So the base deal paid to Quinn,
the No. 22 selection, is a slotted contract.
As to the guarantee, it's true
that Quinn got more guaranteed money than the guy taken in front of him.
However, the Browns got to that $7.75 million number by guaranteeing Quinn's
second-year and third-year salaries. Per a league source, none of the
other guys drafted in the vicinity of Quinn have guaranteed base salaries in
years two or three.
And they don't really need it.
How many first-round picks are cut more than three years into their NFL careers?
Not very many.
Without the guaranteed salaries
paid in years two and three, it's a slotted deal.
Finally, as to the escalators that
can drive the total value of the package to anywhere from $20 million to $30
million, a league source tells us that the deal is not much different from the
incentives included in contracts signed by Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and
Redskins quarterback Jason Campbell, both of whom also were picked after the
first 20 selections in round one.
For more on the Quinn contract
that isn't mentioned above, check out our latest PFTV commentary on the topic.
C'mon. Click on it.
It's only a couple of minutes long. What the hell else are you doing right
now?
Bottom line -- this deal could
have been done two weeks ago. We still can't figure out why it wasn't.
POSTED 4:59
p.m. EDT; LAST UPDATED 5:20 p.m. EDT, August 8, 2007
WHAT THE FUJITA ARE THE SAINTS
DOING?
WWL-TV in New Orleans reports that
Saints linebacker Scott Fujita was "seen on
crutches and with his right foot taped up as the team returned from a
morning excursion to a local water park."
Jeff Duncan of the New Orleans
Times-Picayune also reports that tight end Billy Miller emerged from the
event with a
large bandage on his forehead.
Hey, we generally like the idea of
team-building exercises. But there's got to be a better way to let the
guys bond that have them romp around -- and twist ankles -- at a water park.
How about bowling? Or cards?
Or a Madden tournament? Or anything other than barefooted horseplay on
wet, slippery surfaces?
NEW PFTV STUFF IS UP
We've put together our latest set
of PFTV segments. We'll be posting some of them over the next few days.
Bob Brookover of the
Philadelphia Newspaper Conglomerate (we can't recall which paper Brookover
is assigned to, and are too lazy to look it up) says that Westbrook has been
resting his knees.
But we can't help but wonder
whether the situation is connected to the issue of the unpaid $3 million roster
bonus that Westbrook received. A league source says that it has nothing to
do with the matter, but that the money still hasn't been paid.
Per the source, the two sides are
still working through the issue. The problem is that Westbrook has to pay
the Eagles $3 million even though he likely only received $1.5 million or so
after taxes in extra money. So basically Westbrook must cough up the gross
amount of the extra bonus and wait for the IRS to refund his taxes that the
Eagles had withheld.
POSTED 4:22
p.m. EDT, August 8, 2007
MORA MUSINGS CAUSING MORE
PROBLEMS
Last year, former Falcons coach
Jim Mora Jr. cost himself a job by publicly declaring a desire to become the
head coach at the University of Washington, even if it meant dumping his
then-current gig to do so.
This year, Mora could be costing
his new employer some money. Or a lot of it.
A league insider contacted us in
response to Mora's comments, and told us that Trufant's agent will be filing the
quote away for future use. Trufant will be a free agent after the 2008
season, and Mora has inadvertently bumped up Trufant's leverage.
The source noted that it was a
superficially innocent remark from Mora, but it's the kind of thing that any
coach has to be careful about saying to the media. Agents will use
anything they can to drive up their guy's price tag, and Mora has now given
Trufant's agent more ammo to break the bank.
A league source tells us that
there is a strong belief in some NFL circles that the league office worked the
back channels to request that Michael Vick's arraignment on federal conspiracy
charges be scheduled for the same day on which the Falcons were due to begin
training camp (or, as the case may be, spring training), so that Vick would be
in default under his Falcons contract.
Though, in the end, the NFL
decided to place Vick on a paid leave sort of thing, excusing him from any
finding of default for now, we're told that the initial internal reaction to the
news of the Vick indictment was to posture the situation so that the team would
instantly be able to pursue bonus money that previously has been paid to Vick.
As we reported a couple of weeks
ago, analysis of a contract similar to Vick's suggests that he would owe the
team more than $28 million if he were to default before the start of the 2007
regular season.
It's unclear why the league had a
change of heart in this regard. Perhaps, in the end, the NFL decided that
putting the Falcons in a position where the team would be pursuing Vick's bonus
money before any substantive finding of wrongdoing, as a result of either the
prosecution or an internal league investigation, was too aggressive under the
circumstances.
DID SHARKS CHEW ON CHEW TOY
MARKETER?
We mentioned earlier this week the
Michael Vick dog chew toy that is being sold on line. And we noted that
the similarity of the chew toy's garb to the Atlanta Falcons official uniform
would likely result in the delivery of a cease-and-desist letter from the NFL
offices and/or outside counsel advising the folks selling the thing of the clear
copyright infringement problem that it created.
As a result, there's a new chew
toy in town. And it looks nothing like the first one.
Here's the original.
Here's the new version.
But the folks who are selling the
Vick dog chew toy (the price of which has gone from $7.99 to $10.99 in less than
two days) have other potential legal problems -- apart from the intrusion
on Vick's name and likeness. There's an ad on the page for an entity that
most certainly isn't affiliated with the NFL, but you'd never guess that from
the name of the site or the presence of the NFL shield.
Ahhhh. We can already hear
the laser printers at the offices of Covington & Burling whirring.
On the heels of his holdout,
Browns quarterback Brady Quinn is trying to paint himself as the victim.
"It's
awful," Quinn said on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.
"You grow up loving the game that you play and all of a sudden you're told you
can't come in unless you sign a contract. There are so many things you
don't understand."
Um, Brady? There were so
many things you didn't understand because (in our opinion) you agent didn't want
you to understand them.
In our view, the agent didn't want
Quinn to understand, for example, that Quinn could have had the same deal
before camp opened, if the agent had merely demonstrated a real sense of
urgency to get it done.
Also, Brady's amazement at the
notion that he has to sign a contract before he can play professional football
seems awfully naive, even for a guy in his early 20s.
And, technically, he's wrong about
the link between signing a contract and playing. He could have readily
accepted the requisite one-year tender in the amount of the rookie minimum
salary while negotiations on a long-term deal continued, if his love of football
was so strong.
Bottom line? Brady's best
bet is to move on (or move out) and focus on getting
better as soon as possible at the sport he claims to love so much. As to
the people who already are upset with Quinn, shallow efforts to spin the facts
isn't going to get them to change their minds.
PFT PLANET ANSWERS THE CALL
Holy crap.
Okay, we know that's actually a
reference from a somewhat less popular sitcom that launched in the '90s, but
we're blown away by the e-mails we've received so far linking NFL figures to
Seinfeld characters.
We ask you to
keep them coming. Even if we
don't get another one, we're already extremely pleased with the effort.
At some point this week, we'll
roll out the first unofficial take on this incredibly important and highly
meaningful topic.
So thanks, Todd Wright of Sporting
News Radio, for giving us something to divert our attention from the far more
trivial issues of the day, such as injuries, depth charts, and preseason games.
DID THE BUCS SCREW THE POOCH ON
PLUMMER GRIEVANCE?
Stephen Holder of the St.
Petersburg Times tells us that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers filed their
grievance against quarterback Jake Plummer on Monday, August 6.
But if Plummer's initial default
on his contract occurred when he failed to report for a mandatory minicamp that
opened on June 19, it's possible that the Bucs filed the grievance one business
day too late.
The final outcome will be driven
in large part by the language of Plummer's contract. Many such deals
require signing bonus money to be repaid in the event of the player being "in
default." The argument on Plummer's behalf would be that he was "in
default" as of the date on which he failed to show up for the mandatory minicamp,
and at that point the Bucs had 45 days to file a grievance. In other
words, once a guy is "in default" the clock begins to tick, and a subsequent
event that would put him "in default" doesn't matter, since he already was "in
default."
The Bucs will likely argue that
the subsequent retirement was the trigger for the 45-day time period.
Under the specific terms of Plummer's contract, they could be right.
Still, with the Buccaneers being
sufficiently prudent about ensuring that they had standing to pursue the money
by getting the Broncos to join in the grievance, why wouldn't the Bucs have
filed the thing on or before August 3?
Article IX of the CBA couldn't be
any more clear: "A grievance may be initiated by a player, a Club, the
Management Council, or the NFLPA. A grievance must be initiated within
forty-five (45) days from the date of the occurrence or non-occurrence upon
which the grievance is based, or within forty-five (45) days from the date on
which the facts of the matter became known or reasonably should have been known
to the party initiating the grievance, whichever is greater."
Thus, barring an agreement between
the parties to extend the deadline, it's possible that the Bucs filed the thing
one day late. Even if they win that argument in the end, why take the
risk?
WEDNESDAY MORNING TRAINING CAMP
ONE-LINERS by Michael
David Smith
Cowboys WR Terrell Owens
plans to play in Thursday's preseason opener.
The Giants' defensive tackles
prefer the aggressive schemes of new coordinator Steve Spagunolo to the
read-and-react approach of previous coordinator Tim Lewis.
Falcons WR Noriaki Kinoshita, a
native of Japan who led NFL Europa in kickoff returns, will
get some playing time in the preseason opener against the Jets Friday.
Cardinals assistant Russ Grimm is
telling the offensive linemen that one mistake is understandable, but the second
time they make a mistake, "we're
going to have a problem."
QB Kurt Warner
plans to play out his contract, which expires after the 2008 season.
(Translation: "Standing on the sidelines pays better than bagging
groceries.")
Rams LB Pisa Tinoisamoa spent the
off-season watching himself on film and concluded, "My
tackling was horrible. It was horrific."
Stephen Holder of the St.
Petersburg Times reports that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
have filed a grievance
against quarterback Jake Plummer for repayment of roughly $7 million in
signing bonus money that previously was paid to Plummer on the contract that
Plummer now refuses to honor.
The concept of retired players
being required to repay bonus money is nothing new. The first guy required
to do it was Lions running back Barry Sanders. We recently reported that
Giants defensive end Michael Strahan could have to repay $4.5 million if he
follows through on his plan to retire.
Contrary to popular belief among
many players, a signing bonus is not free money. It is advance
compensation for future services. For example, a $4 million signing bonus
on a four-year deal represents $1 million in advance pay for each of the four
years of the deal. If the player doesn't perform for the final two years,
he fairly should be required to give back $2 million.
The Denver Broncos have joined in
the grievance, presumably to prevent Plummer from arguing that the Bucs have no
right to the money since the Bucs didn't pay it. However, the Dolphins are
still owed money from running back Ricky Williams that was paid in part by the
Saints. With that said, it's always prudent to seal off any arguments that
a party to a legal dispute could make, and adding Denver to the grievance could
aid significantly in this regard.
Some might think that the Bucs
filed the grievance early in camp in order to squeeze Plummer into coming out of
retirement. But our guess is that the grievance was filed on or before
August 3, which would have been the 45th day after Plummer
failed to report for a
mandatory minicamp that opened on June 19.
The struggles on the offensive
line continue with the Chiefs. But the revelation that left tackle
Damion McIntosh
will miss 4-6 weeks is treated as good news in Kansas City, since many
feared that McIntosh's knee sprain from Monday could keep him out much longer.
McIntosh could be back for the
regular-season opener. Until then, third-year backup Will Svitek will take
his place.
If Svitek struggles, Kyle "Crazy
Joe Davola" Turley could be moved to the left side.
SPEAKING OF CRAZY JOE . . .
Our buddy Todd Wright of Sporting
News Radio gave yours truly an assignment during the weekly Tuesday night PFT
appearance. After offering up our take on which NFL figure is most like
Kenny Banya of Seinfeld fame, Wright expanded the project to include
other figures from the show that gets a reference from time to time (eye roll)
in this space.
So help us out, PFT Planet.
Who's Newman? Kramer? Uncle Leo? Babu Bhatt?
We've previously dubbed Herm
Edwards the Jackie Chiles of the NFL, and Tom Coughlin is the Soup Nazi.
So those are taken. As is, you know, Crazy Joe.
Last year, the big-money offseason
acquisition of the Cleveland Browns blew out a patellar tendon on the first day
of training camp, and has yet to return. This year, the team's high-priced
lineman is injured, too. But not nearly as seriously.
Guard Eric Steinbach reportedly
will misses up to weeks after falling on his knee during practice on Tuesday.
"We're
having it evaluated," coach Romeo Crennel said, according to the
Cleveland Plain Dealer. "We were inside on the turf and he came down
on the knee. I would say he bruised it, but I haven't looked at it, and
I'm not the doctor, so I don't know."
The Steinbach injury comes less
than a week after it was announced that right tackle Ryan Tucker will miss the
first four games of the season due to a violation of the steroids policy.
Lennie Friedman will fill in for
Steinbach while the injury heals.
