Category: NFL (Page 1139 of 1282)

Surry Commonwealth prosecutor Gerald Poindexter says he has evidence that links Michael Vick directly to dog fighting, or more specifically, has two informants who can. Whoop-dee-doo. Wait about an hour and Poindexter – who is about as fickle as a cat – will say he doesn’t have any evidence and note the investigation is still ongoing. If I hear any real news, I’ll post it, but for now, lets move on to something else, shall we?

One of the more popular statements being thrown out by radio host, newspaper columnist and bloggers everywhere, is that the Falcons traded the wrong quarterback when they dealt backup Matt Schaub to the Houston Texans in March. Considering Vick’s recent dog days, it’s easy to say Atlanta was complete fools in trading a talented prospect like Schaub.

Lets take a closer look, however:

-Schaub was set to become a free agent after the 2007 season and therefore was no guarantee he would re-sign with the Falcons. After playing second fiddle to Vick for four years, why would he want to re-sign?

-No matter how good Schaub has looked in preseason and in spot duty, he’s never won a game in which he’s started. He’s a talented prospect, but the jury is still out on if Schaub can win in this league.

–Vick’s contract is absurd until he becomes a free agent in 2014, so even if Atlanta wanted to trade him, there’s no guarantee any team would have took on his salary. Therefore, trading or outright releasing him would have put the Falcons in cap hell and make it hard to re-sign Schaub to a big contract anyway. And don’t believe the Raiders were “highly interested” because that was just Internet-fodder.

-The Falcons were 7-9 last year and had a ton of pre-draft holes. Depth was an issue at virtually all posistions and they needed starters on the defensive line, secondary and left guard.

-To go along with the above pivot point, the Falcons landed DE Jamaal Anderson and G Justin Blalock – two potential rookie starters – thanks to the swap with Houston, plus they still have a second round pick coming in ’08.

-There’s no way the Falcons could have foreseen all of this controversy with dog fighting, even with Vick’s “Watergate” incident and flipping off the Georgia Dome patrons. Sorry, but dog fighting is on another level than having a trick water bottle in an airport.

So, did the Falcons trade the wrong quarterback? I think there’s a valid argument either way, especially when you consider Vick’s off field issues and on field consistency problems, but it’s not as clear cut as people are making it out to be. If anything, the Falcons are more foolish for the absurd contract they gave Vick in ’04 than for dealing Schaub.

A new football league is apparently in the works and ready to rival the NFL, according to FOXSports.com. The United Football League, which was created by Bill Hambrecht, a Wall Street businessman, and Tim Armstrong, a senior executive at Google, apparently wants to kick off its preseason in August of 2008. Hambrecht and Armstrong already have one owner on board: Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

“(Former NFL coach) Bill Walsh used to tell me that the last 20 players cut from every team were almost interchangeable with the last 20 players to make the team,” Hambrecht says.

So let me get this straight, these two boy wonders are standing around the water cooler one day and say, “Hey, we’ve got a ton of money, let’s start a new football league to rival the NFL!” One of the major complaints in the NFL now is that the league is too watered down. Yet these guys think people are actually going to tune in to watch the NFL’s scrubs? Nevertheless compete against the NFL during the NFL’s regular season? I could see a league trying to challenge the NFL in its offseason, but not parallel to America’s most popular regular season. I believe the last football league to attempt this feat was the XFL, and anyone unfortunate enough to actually remember that debacle recalls it only lasted a year and because nobody gave a crap.

Not to rain on your parade fellas, but I think it would be easier to resurrect Britney Spears’ career right now than trying to compete with the popularity of the NFL.

Sincerely,

“He Hate Me”

So, what’s new in LenDale White’s world? Oh, not showing up for a mini camp practice, you know, nothing big. White’s been bothered by a hamstring injury and therefore limited in previous workouts, but completely failed to show up on Tuesday.

Tennessee head coach Jeff Fisher is not amused:

“He had some kind of flight problem or something like that,” Fisher said. “No one else seemed to have flight problems. …

“I’ve been on record with being disappointed with him. I hope to have him back on the practice field, but again everybody else was here and he wasn’t. I’m anxious to hear what kind of excuse he has.”

Let’s see, there have been hamstring problems, rumors of a failed drug test, spitting in the face of a teammate, overweight issues and now missed practices. Hey LenDale, the Titans gave you the keys to the car over the offseason by trading Travis Henry and not re-signing Chris Brown. So how about you get into shape so you don’t have any more injury problems and start justifying why Tennessee gave you $1.3 million in guaranteed money last year. Give a regular “Joe” $1.3 million and I guarantee you he’ll put down the cheeseburgers and get his ass to practice on time. Oh and by the way, Chris Henry is breathing down your neck.

Miami Dolphins wide receiver Ted Ginn Jr. is apparently healing nicely from his Lisfranc sprain and according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, will be ready to attain the Dolphins’ June 7 mini camp.

People are going to continue to criticize Miami for passing on Brady Quinn in last month’s draft, but give Ginn a chance. He’s unbelievably explosive and while his impact will be made on special teams first, he’ll have the chance to develop into a nice deep threat too. I know I’m in the minority, but I still think Quinn looked more appealing than he normally would have because it was a weak draft on the whole. Remember, judge the Dolphins decision to pass on Quinn by including second round pick John Beck too, because obviously they thought the combination of Ginn and Beck were better than Quinn and another receiver in the second. And time may prove their decision was just.

In other news, according to the NFL Network, the Dolphins have upped the anty for quarterback Trent Green. Miami was offering a sixth round pick, but now are offering a conditional sixth round pick, which means if Green reaches playing time incentives, the pick could turn into a fifth rounder. Personally, KC has to take this deal and put an end to the madness.

New England Patriots defensive end Marquise Hill is believed to be missing after a jet ski incident that occurred on a lake in Louisiana Sunday evening. Hill was riding with a young woman when a strong current knocked the two off their watercrafts. According to the Boston Globe, Hill saved the young woman’s life by keeping her calm and eventually getting her a buoy to hang onto. She was eventually saved after people on a boat heard her screams for help, but Hill drifted away and is still missing.

So many times we hear about athletes who are selfish, but obviously that’s not the case with Hill. My thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family and hopefully he’ll be rescued soon.

Update: According to New Orleans Times-Picayune, Hill’s body was recovered at 2:15pm Monday, but he had already passed. Hill was 24.