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While this blog’s usual topic has been the NFL, I had to comment about the recent situation at Ohio State, and until there is a new CBA there is really nothing to talk about in the NFL. For those of you that live under a rock, Ohio St. head football coach Jim Tressel is being investigated by the school and the NCAA for withholding information. When Terrelle Pryor and 4 other players were suspended in January for selling their memorabilia, it was suppose to be the first time the team knew about these violations. Well it wasn’t the first time Tressel had heard about this, in fact, he knew about the situation NINE months before anyone ever found out about it. The NCAA’s reputation took a hit when it failed to suspend those players from the Sugar Bowl, and with this new evidence, it seems the NCAA should, and probably has, stop caring about college football.
The punishment that Tressel received isn’t even a slap on the wrist. Basically someone just waving a finger at him saying ‘You better not do this again’. From what I understand the NCAA hasn’t even weighed in on the situation and the school is the one that has handed down the punishment. WHERE IS THE NCAA?!? That being said, this punishment is pathetic. Tressel will miss the first two games of next season. These games are against Akron and Toledo, two teams that Ohio St. could beat with their 2nd and 3rd stringers. So that’s not a punishment. Next, Tressel was fined $25,000. He makes over a million dollars a year. Once again, this is not a punishment. Tressel also has to make a public apology and receive public reprimand. What the hell is public reprimand these days? Keep in mind this was all handed down by the school. The NCAA will probably agree with their decision and not do anything. They’ll probably reduce the suspension. Got to love the STRICT AND POWERFUL NCAA these days, for doing their job.
Want to get the point across to coaches in the NCAA. Take Tressel up to Ann Arbor, put him in the quad at Michigan in stocks, and let Michigan fans and students throw stuff at him for a week. There’s your public reprimand.
Carson Palmer wants out of Cincinnati. He made this very clear in January, when he said that he would retire if the Bengals did not trade him. In recent comments, Palmer told someone “I will never set foot in Paul Brown Stadium again.” I’ll admit that Palmer hasn’t had the best crop of players around him, especially on the defensive side of the ball, but where does he get off saying something like this? It’s not like he’s the best quarterback in the league and is sick of losing. He’s had major knee and elbow surgery, and has blamed his poor play last season on an injured shoulder. I like Palmer, I really do, but he’s not in the position to demand something like this. There must be some kind of beef that is going on in the locker room that the public hasn’t been informed of yet.
While I don’t think Palmer has the right to demand this, there has been something that I think should drastically help his image. “I have $80million in the bank. I don’t have to play football for the money. I’ll play it for the love of the game, but that would have to be elsewhere. I’m prepared to live my life.” Palmer is the only person that I can remember that has said he’ll play for the love of the game. Unlike many NFL players, Palmer seems to manage his money well, and has enough to happily retire with his family at a young age. He loves the game too much to do that, and this shows that he would even be willing to take a pay cut, if he had to go play somewhere else. I hope he leaves, and I hope we can see him revitalize his career possibly in Arizona with Larry Fitzgerald. Everyone knows their looking for a QB. But the Bengal’s owner Mike Brown has already stated he will not trade Palmer. Enjoy early retirement Carson.
CBA talks resume today, which if you ask me, they never should have stopped. The fact that the league and the union aren’t working through the weekend and spending every possible minute on trying to come up with an agreement is disgusting. The mediated sessions are over and it is up to the League and the Union to come u p with a deal on their own, and with teams dropping players left and right, I hope this deal comes quick. Some notable new free agents- Clinton Portis, Damien Woody, Kris Jenkins, and Tommie Harris. This fairly deep free agent pool could continue to be padded with talent, if some high value free agents don’t resign with their team.
While there are an enormous amount of free agents, nothing can be done till a CBA agreement is reached. With the discussions and talks being sealed, and little information being leaked ( I applaud the NFL, and Union for keeping things within closed doors), it’s hard to know where the disagreements are coming. We do, however, have a good idea that these are the four main topics that are being discussed.
1.) 18 Game Season- Goodell and the rest of the owners want to take away 2 preseason games and create an 18 game season. Their reasoning for doing this, money of course. Like many of the players, I am totally against this idea. I don’t mind taking away 2 preseason games, but extending the number of games being played would do more harm than good. A 16 game season, plus playoffs already takes an enormous toll on the players bodies. We witnessed this with the amount of concussions this season, and with players continuing to get bigger, stronger, and faster, concussions are going to continue to be a problem. An 18 game season would simply lead to shorter NFL careers.
2.) Player benefits- Goodell has already made it known that he does not want to limit the benefits that players get after they retire. The problem is you need to play six years before you see these benefits. The average NFL career, 4.5yrs. Teams can easily cut players after their fourth or fifth season and leave them to free agency rather than keep them around for special teams, or practice squad purposes. The year limit needs to be reduced at least a year, in order to provide for players who may have to cut their career short because of a devastating injury. 6yrs is too long, and while 5yrs may still be long, it’s a start.
3.) Owners want more money- This is probably the main reason that there has not been an agreement yet. The owners want their share of the player revenue which in 2009 was $3.3billion, nearly 70% of the league total incremental revenue. I do understand that the owners need to build stadiums and put a lot of money into their teams, but the players are who fill the seats. If you’re not filling your stadium because your team isn’t doing well, you have internal issues that you should worry about. The players in the NFL are the best of the best, and I find it a little hard that their pay should be cut so the owners see more money. I watch football to see the athletes, not to see the owners.
4.) Rookie Salary Cap- If the owners want to see more money… put a cap on the draft. I completely agree with this idea. Rookies should earn their money, instead of being given millions and millions of dollars based on potential. Bradford’s record signing last year of $78million with $50million guaranteed was outrageous. Lucky for the Rams he turned out to be worth the money, will someday become an elite NFL QB. That should and will hopefully be the last big deal for a rookie we see. The cap should have set amount for each draft pick. Obviously the higher you go the more money you should receive, and there should still be a substantial separation between the amount a drafted player makes, and the amount that an undrafted rookie makes. The rookies need to prove their worth before they see the big checks.
The ongoing CBA talks have many players and fans worried that there could possibly be a lockout next season, which would leave us with nothing to do on Sundays. However, Jake Locker is all set if he can’t play in the NFL, he’ll just go play baseball. In 2009 Locker was selected in the 10th round by the Angeles, and received a $250,000 dollar signing bonus. Since his signing, Locker has had to periodically attend workouts at the Angeles training facility in Arizona, which the Angeles have reportedly said he has done. Locker has reportedly stayed true to the terms that he agreed to when he signed the contact back in 2009, leaving himself with a lot of options come next fall. If the NFL does have a work stoppage and there is not a season this year, Locker will be able to turn around and be a professional athlete in a different sport. Football may be his #1 choice, but have another major league team wanting your services if the other falls through, isn’t a bad option.
Locker would have been the #1 QB taken in last year’s draft had he chosen to forego his senior year at Washington. While many applaud his decision to stay and finish school, his draft stock took a big hit. Falling from the #1 spot to #4 in QBs ranked in this year’s draft, he will most likely miss out on millions of dollars. However, Locker did have a good showing at the combine and this could allow for his stock to rise especially with the very poor showing by Cam Newton. Should be interesting to see what Locker chooses to do, and what uniform he decides to wear come the summer/fall
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Its time for the final three groups of my combine preview. RB’s, QB’s, and WR’s are arguably the most entertaining groups of the coming, and the ones that most people look forward to seeing. While this years draft has more overall talent on the defensive side of the ball, there are still some extremely good offensive prospects that will have a major impact as rookies. First up, WR’s.
With Justin Blackmon opting out of the draft for another year in college, this opens the door some wide receivers to move up in the draft. A.J. Green of Georgia and Julio Jones of Alabama are miles ahead of the other wide receivers in the draft class, but that doesn’t mean that one team won’t be able to get a steal pick on day 2
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I have mixed feelings about Mr. Rex Ryan. I’m a big time Patriots fan so I hate the Jet, but at the same time every now and then I don’t mind what Rex says. Its just too easy to make fun of him, and the Wes Welker “Best FOOT Forward” interview was probably the most clever interview ever. Well the combine just wouldn’t be the same if Rex didn’t open his mouth and grab some sort of attention away from the Combine, CBA talks, and Lovie Smith’s contract extension. Well apparently this is the year for the Jets. According to Rex, the third time is the charm and his Jets are going to be crowned World Champions come next January.
Well Rex I have some bad news for you. While you have a great team and an amazing defense, you just don’t have everything you need to win a championship. Your defense is there and thats the reason I wanted you guys to lose against Colts, cause I didn’t want the Pats playing you in the playoffs. And we all saw why. But Revis needs to get out of his slump. Just wasn’t the same corner for you last year that he was a year ago. One year went straight to his head leading to a hold out and unless he rebounds next year, he will prove that he wasn’t worth the money. You also don’t have the quarterback you need to win the Super Bowl. Sure there have been some weird names to hoist the trophey, Eli Manning, Trent Dilfer, and Brad Johnson (to name a few recent ones), but they are better than Mark Sanchez. Game management just isn’t there yet unless he makes some drastic changes in his game this off season. Don’t feel bad about it though, the Raven’s have the same problem
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The safeties and cornerbacks in this years combine, are not a particularly strong group. There is not a great depth in the amount of players from each group that were invited to the combine. That being said, the talent in the top players in the cornerback group greatly out performs the talent of the safeties. It will be slim pickings for teams that are looking to improve their defensive backfield. Here are a couple players that should be fun to watch.
Prince Amukamara, CB Nebraska- He’s coming of the board early come draft time. Has been on a lot of teams radars for the past couple of years. Has great speed, and quickness, but not great straight ahead speed, which could be exposed by some speedy receivers in the NFL. He has great ball skills and also has the ability to come up and stick people in the run game. Will be a starter from day one for whatever team takes him
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I’m starting to realize that this whole writing about every group in the combine minus TE’s, K’s, and P’s (cause it’s not a good class for those groups) was a bad idea. But until they break the silence in the CBA talks, there’s nothing else to talk about, and my jobs boring as hell so I might as well kill time doing something. SO here’s the next group, the Linebackers.
Not as deep a group some of the past years have shown, but the crop at the top are pretty damn good.
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I’ll be honest, I’ve never really been a big fan of Cam Newton and his recent comments aren’t helping his image. Its one thing to go out and say that you think you can do well in the NFL, but it’s another to go over the top. For those you haven’t heard, Cam Newton said he is ready to be an “entertainer and icon” in the NFL. Talk about the media hype getting to your head. This is absolutely absurd. Cam Newton’s a great player, but for someone who is already carrying a ton of baggage why give the media more ammunition. Did he deserve the Heisman? Yes. Will he have to give it back in five years like Reggie Bush? Probably. Is he an entertainer, icon, or role model? Hell no. For all we know he could turn out to be like Ryan Leaf, Matt Leinart, and Jamarcus Russell.
Cam, here’s some advice for you. Shut up! You don’t hear your teammate Nick Fairley, or Da’Quan Bowers, or Blaine Gabbert running their mouth. You know why? They’re all too busy working out and getting ready for the combine. Your stock may have risen recently, but it can easily drop if you piss down your leg during the combine. Do something in the NFL before you start running your mouth. And when you said “Not to be arrogant, but I did in one year what people couldn’t do in their whole college careers,” that may have been one of the most arrogant things ever said by someone. Every year a quarterback wins the national championship for their team, and every year someone wins the Heisman. You just had to be the one to go run their mouth about it. My prediction: You hold out for more money going into your rookie season, while your dad takes bids from television networks trying to get you a reality show. But you won’t know about, again, so it’s alright
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Like the offensive line, the defensive line is a fairly deep group in this year’s draft. The clear stand out is Nick Fairley of Auburn. An absolutely dominate force on the interior of the defensive line that many are saying is the closest to Warren Sapp they have seen in a long time. But what about the other crop of players that are out there that looking to make a splash in this year’s draft. Here they are and they are looking to impress.
Da’Quan Bowers, Clemson- An absolute beat at the DE position. Listed at 6’4, 280lbs he has the ability to start and take over games as a rookie. Reminds me of a young Julius Peppers or Jevon Kearse. Will go top 10 if not top 5 in the draft and will have an immediate impact. On this list simply because I’m looking forward to see what he will do next year. Personally I believe he would be a better #1 pick then Fairley, who many believe will be taken first
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Comment by Sean 5
on NFL Combine Preview- Linebackers
NFL with Jelli