A source familiar with the Bears’ thinking told the Tribune on Wednesday the team has no plans to pursue a trade for Jackson at this time. Strings attached to Jackson — compensation and a new contract — are factors the Bears do not want to burden themselves with a month before training camp.
The Bears, like many teams, would love to have a 6-foot-5, 230-pound target such as Jackson to throw to, particularly in the red zone. However, Jackson is unhappy with the one-year, $3.268 million tender extended to him by the Chargers and wants a deal closer to the four-year, $47.5 million contract the Dolphins gave Brandon Marshall — a price tag way too high for the Bears.
I’ve heard some people suggest that Jackson wouldn’t be a good fit for Mike Martz’s offense because he doesn’t need a No. 1 for his system to be successful. While he might not need a No. 1 for his system to be successful, suggesting that Martz wouldn’t want a highly productive and multi-faceted Jackson in his offense is re-donkuluss.
That said, I can’t imagine that the Bears would want to give up their first round pick in 2011 after giving up their 2009 and 2010 first rounders for Jay Cutler. It’s even less likely that they would want to pay Jackson as much as Marshall is making after shelling out for Julius Peppers.
This past offseason was the anomaly and not the norm. Let’s keep in mind that this is generally a cheap organization.
Despite a report by the Associated Press on Saturday morning that stated otherwise, the Eagles are not considering releasing quarterback Michael Vick according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen. Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer also denied the rumor.
Earlier today, the AP reported that a person familiar with the “team’s thinking” said that the Eagles were strongly considering releasing Vick. The report even went as far as to say that Vick would be released, “no matter what police conclude during their investigation of a shooting that followed the quarterback’s birthday celebration in Virginia Beach last week.”
But the only thing the Eagles released was a statement that denied the report.
“Any report or speculation that suggests the Eagles are considering releasing Vick are not true.”
Truth be told, if the Eagles eventually do release Vick (maybe they’re waiting to see what the outcome of this investigation is before deciding anything either way) nobody would blame them. They don’t need this one month before training camp opens, especially when it involves a backup player with a history of off-field issues. That said, it sounds as if the AP released a bogus report thanks to an unreliable source and we’ll just see what happens.
Check out this video of driver Alberto Valerio in Valencia, Spain as he speeds out of the pits with the rear jack still beneath his car and then takes out a camera during the race when the jack dislodges.
When the athletic director of a major university gets arrested for DUI, it’s embarrassing for all parties involved.
When the athletic director of a major university gets arrested for DUI, bargains with the police officer to let him go, is riding with a younger women who isn’t his wife in the car and also has her underwear on his lap at the top of being pulled over, it’s really, really embarrassing.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has the details of Georgia athletic director Damon Evans’ June 30th DUI arrest:
Evans, who admitted to drinking three Vodka cocktails, began bargaining with the trooper as soon as he realized he might be placed under arrest. “I am not trying to bribe you but I’m the athletic director of the University of Georgia,” Evans said.
The arrest report, released at 4:55 p.m. Friday of a holiday weekend, reveals several embarrassing details for the 40-year-old Evans, whose lucrative new 5-year contract went into effect Thursday.
The passenger in Evans’ car, 28-year-old Courtney Fuhrmann, was being “very loud and obnoxious and was obviously intoxicated,” Cabe wrote. She repeatedly got out of the car, ignoring the trooper’s instructions, before she was handcuffed and charged with disorderly conduct, according to the incident report.
“I apologize and don’t want to use my influence but she is trying to protect me,” Evans told Cabe. Furmann remained “combative,” the trooper wrote, and after Evans refused to take a breath test he was arrested.
Wait, the story gets better.
The trooper, who noted that Evans had a pair of red panties between his legs, asked the athletic director “what her panties were doing in his side of the seat. He stated, ‘She took them off and I held them because I was just trying to get her home.’ ”
Evans told the trooper “there was nothing there” between him and the Buckhead woman “because he had a wife and family.”
Evans appeared relaxed when first stopped by the trooper. “I feel pretty good,” he told the trooper, then “smiled and laughed for no apparent reason.” Cabe said Evans had “red, bloodshot, watery eyes and droopy eyelids” and he detected “a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage.”
The Nebraska native asked the trooper to let him off with a warning.
“I told him I don’t issue warnings for DUI,” Cabe replied.
Evans tried again: “I don’t want you to use who I am but I would just ask that you take me to a motel.”
After he was arrested, the father of two — who refused a Breathalyzer — told the trooper, “We go through life and we all drink and jump in a car.”
As if things weren’t bad enough for Evans, he was the one who also did a DUI prevention public service announcement video that ran throughout Sanford Stadium during Georgia home football games last year.
Everyone makes mistakes, but I don’t see how Evans can keep his job after this. Georgia showed video of this guy telling thousands of students last year not to drink and drive and then he gets busted for the same crime. He looks like a giant hypocrite and I wonder what would happen if a student athlete were to be arrested for the same thing. What kind of punishment would he face? Would he be allowed to stay on the team?
Maybe UGA will stand by Evans and set an example that people deserve second chances. But the details of this situation might be too embarrassing for the university to allow him to keep his job. Not only was he driving drunk, but he was also riding around with a chick’s panties between his legs. Oh, and he’s married with two children and the women he was traveling with wasn’t his wife.
Note to self: Never go to the airport with a defensive linemen from the Cleveland Browns, because chances are they’ll get caught with a loaded gun in their carry-on bag.
From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Browns defensive Robaire Smith, who was with fellow defensive lineman Shaun Rogers when he was arrested for having a loaded gun in his carry-on at the airport, is now facing charges for the same thing, the Flint Journal reported today.
But if you’re wondering why Smith didn’t learn from Rogers’ mistake, Smith’s incident happened first.
Smith, 32, was going through security at Bishop Airport in Flint, Mich. on Nov. 6 when a loaded gun was found in his carry-on. Rogers was arrested April 1st after a loaded gun was found in his bag at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. He pleaded not guilty and is awaiting a court date.
Like Rogers, Smith told airport security he forgot the gun was in his bag. The gun was confiscated and he was released pending further investigation. Leyton issued the charge on Thursday, misdemeanor possession of a firearm in a sterile area of a commercial airport. It carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
This is outstanding. You wouldn’t even see this kind of story play out in a movie because people would think it’s too ridiculous and unrealistic. Yet this is all true! All of it!
I would have loved to have seen Smith’s face when Rogers was busted with his gun:
“Wait…you too?! Dude, the same thing happened to me like five months ago! Yeah, no, I’m totally serious – same exact thing.”
I’ll pose the same question here as I did when Rogers was arrested: How could anyone forget that they have a loaded freaking weapon on them in an airport? I freak out when I think my toothpaste tube is too big and I have to carry it on a plane, yet these guys completely forget that they’re packing heat. Un-real.
