Author: Anthony Stalter (Page 1275 of 1503)

According to the SportsBuisness Journal, the NFL might not have a salary cap as soon as 2010.

Jeff Pash, the league’s general counsel who is handling labor talks, said, “If I were the union, I would say that, too. That is the right pressure point to try to urge. If the union said ‘no problem if we go to an uncapped year, we will agree to do a cap at some point,’ that would change the dynamic. … The union feels as if the uncapped year is a big pressure point. I don’t know if that is right or not.”

That’s cool, NFL – just ignore the fans like baseball does. There are several reasons the NFL is so popular and one of the reasons is parity. Pirates and Royals fans know every year that their team won’t compete over the long haul because their owners won’t spend to win. The same thing will happen in the NFL and certain teams will eventually become yearly bottom feeders. The excitement of knowing a losing franchise could turn their misfortune around in one offseason will be vanished and the league will turn into the have’s and have not’s.

But hey, at least the players will get paid right? Surely that’s the most important thing here.

Blogger Mike Florio wrote a recent column for SportingNews.com about 10 NFL players that should retire.

6. Jonathan Ogden, OT, Ravens: Ogden is another guy who should quit talking about retirement and just do it. For the future Hall of Famer, however, it’s not about whether he loves the game. It’s about whether he can continue to use a constantly injured toe to push off his 345-pound frame. (Then again, it’s likely the toe is constantly injured from all those years of doing just that.)

8. Chad Johnson, WR, Bengals: In a misguided effort to get out of town, the Bengals’ No. 1 wideout has been threatening to retire. Coach Marvin Lewis has called his bluff. Johnson should call Marvin’s bluff and pack it in. Not because it’s in Johnson’s best long-term interests to do so, but because the football-following world is sick of listening to his routine. The only problem is someone would likely hire Johnson to talk about football on television. So maybe it’s better if he doesn’t retire. Ever.

I realize is this is supposed to be a tongue-in-cheek column and Florio is trying to be somewhat comical, but I’ve always been of the mind that no member of the media should ever tell a professional athlete when to hang it up. If athletes took retirement advice from the media, Brett Favre would have quit four years ago and football fans wouldn’t have been able to enjoy Favre and the Packers’ great run last year.

Ryan Wilson of AOL’s FanHouse writes that former Bengals wide receiver and public menace (too over the top?) Chris Henry is seeking the advice of former Cowboys wide out Michael Irvin.

And now recently unemployed Chris Henry wants to do the same. Via the Cowboys Blog:

On his show on ESPN Radio Dallas moments ago, Cowboys icon Michael Irvin revealed that he recently took a phone call from embattled ex-Bengal Chris Henry. Henry, it seems, wants to make a cleaning-up-my-act appearance on Irvin’s program, the same way Pacman Jones did weeks ago.

Irvin and co-host Kevin Kiley discussed the merits of providing Henry with such a stage. There was some reluctance on their part in becoming known as the “Boystown” of sports radio.

God help us all.