Category: NFL (Page 1246 of 1282)

Green Bay WR Javon Walker’s contract dispute with the franchise resurfaced Thursday when he told ESPN that he doesn’t want to play for the Packers any longer.

“I just don’t feel like this is the best place for me to be right now,” said Walker, whose relationship with the organization remains fractured following the team’s refusal last summer to renegotiate his contract and public criticism at his expense by Favre. “I really have no interest in being in a Green Bay Packers uniform or playing for Green Bay again.”

Walker added, “I just don’t like the way the organization runs itself. They want players to come up there and play hard and work hard, but when it comes time to be compensated, it’s like, ‘We forgot what you’ve done.'”

Walker is the team’s best receiver and is probably the best WR in the division, so this is a big blow to the franchise. When disgruntled players demand a trade, it is rare that the team gets equal value in return. They could have reworked his contract before the knee injury, but other than keeping him happy, they had no incentive to do so.

The NFL owners approved a revenue-sharing deal and agreed to a six-year extension of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, which means the salary cap isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

This much was known: The cap in 2006 will be $102 million, an increase of $7.5 million over the projected $94.5 million cap for 2006. That’s a $16.5 million increase from the $85.5 million cap of 2005. The 2007 cap will be $109 million.

What all this means for the league, the owners and the players is labor peace. For fans, it means roster peace.

The owners voted 30-2 in favor of the agreement. The two lone holdouts were the Bengals and Bills, which leads me to believe that the deal wasn’t exactly what the low-revenue teams wanted in terms of revenue sharing.

With the extra cap space, some of the roster cuts that we saw last week may be rescinded. Free agency will probably start on Saturday and it shouldn’t be as chaotic as we thought it might be.

If you like parity in the NFL, this is very good news.

Following Daunte Culpepper’s worst season as a pro, which ended with a brutal knee injury, he did an odd thing – he asked for a raise. The Vikings, like most sane people around the country, just shrugged their shoulders. They said the right things – that he’s a good player and that he’s in their future plans – but according to Daunte the team is trying to trade him and he wants out.

“Two days ago I got an e-mail from management that confirmed for me that they did not see me as the player or person that I see myself,” Culpepper told ESPN’s Andrea Kremer. “I was shocked. It pushed me to this point [seeking a trade]. The e-mail made no mention of trying to trade me, but I confirmed from an outside source that they were attempting to trade me. While I have not yet told the Vikings, if they do not trade me, I intend to ask the Vikings to terminate my contract.”

Minnesota won’t confirm Culpepper’s comments, but if they’re smart, they’re trying to unload him. Culpepper still has some value around the league and there’s a chance that a team like the Raiders or Cardinals would be willing to give the Vikings a good draft pick for the quarterback.

If I were a GM, I wouldn’t touch this guy with a ten-foot pole. Last season, he wasn’t able to prove that he could play without Randy Moss and if that knee injury negatively affects his mobility, then his game is in serious trouble.

Here’s the latest on the headache…err…labor dispute between the NFLPA and the owners.

The owners began meeting Tuesday at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport to vote whether to accept the latest proposal given them by the NFL Players Association. But to make it financially acceptable, they will have to agree first among themselves on expanded revenue sharing, just what Gene Upshaw, the union’s executive director, has been saying in more than a year’s worth of talks.

At this point, it’s not just a dispute between the players and the owners, it’s also a dispute between the low-revenue teams and high-revenue teams.

Low-revenue teams such as Buffalo, Cincinnati and Indianapolis say high-revenue teams — Dallas, Washington and Philadelphia, for instance — should contribute proportionately to the player pool because they can earn far more in nonfootball income such as advertising and local radio rights. Those high-revenue teams might contribute only 10 percent of their outside money compared with 50 percent or more for low-revenue teams.

In addition to advertising and local radio rights, big-market teams are able to demand more for naming rights and corporate luxury suites.

Man, I just want good football.

Even though he’s missed 22 games over the last three seasons due to various injuries, the New York Jets elected to rework QB Chad Pennington’s contract to ensure he will be with the team in 2006. Pennington was set to get $9 M in guaranteed compensation this season, but has agreed to drop that number to $3 M guaranteed along with $6 M in available incentives.

The Jets must be encouraged by his progress this offseason to invest even $3 M in the oft-injured QB. Pennington did manage to play 13 games in 2004 and was able to throw 16 touchdowns against nine interceptions for a QB rating of 91.0.