Category: NFL (Page 734 of 1282)

      Report: Favre to meet with Vikings’ coach Brad Childress

      May 6, 2009 /

      According to ESPN.com and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Brett Favre will meet with Vikings’ head coach Brad Childress sometime this week at an undisclosed location to discuss his return to football.

      The ESPN report stated that there is a mutual understanding that sometime soon after the meeting, Favre will decide whether to sign with the Vikings and that Childress would expect him to participate fully in the offseason minicamps and training camps. Favre, who will turn 40 on Oct. 10, was never fond of participating in the Packers’ offseason camps. The future Hall of Famer did not get traded to the New York Jets in time last year for that to become an issue.
      One thing working in the Vikings’ favor is that Favre is very familiar with the West Coast offensive system the team runs — he directed the same offense for several years in Green Bay. He also is extremely close with former Packers assistant and current Vikings offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell.

      Perhaps the Vikings’ biggest concern will be the condition of Favre’s injured right biceps tendon, which played a role in his struggles late last season when the Jets won only one of their final five games. ESPN reported that Favre might believe his arm can heal on its own without surgery, and how the injury heals will be a factor in his decision.

      Assuming of course that these reports are true and that he wants to come back, the question the Vikings should be asking themselves is whether or not Favre makes them better. Since 1998, he is 3-6 in the playoffs with 16 touchdowns and 18 interceptions and his play dramatically fell off again towards the end of last season because of his biceps injury. Is he completely healthy? If he is, can he stay healthy for an entire season?

      I’m not entirely sure that at this point Favre is significantly better option than Sage Rosenfels or Tarvaris Jackson. The same core that got the Vikings to the playoffs last year is returning and while Rosenfels isn’t a spectacular quarterback, he can certainly turn around and hand the ball to Adrian Peterson 25 times a game.

      NFL

      Report: Cowboys never had roof inspected

      May 5, 2009 /

      According to a report by the Dallas Morning News, the Cowboys never had the roof of the practice facility that collapsed over the weekend inspected by city officials.

      The Dallas Cowboys applied last year for a building permit to replace the high-tension fabric roof on the indoor practice facility that collapsed Saturday and injured 12 people. But the team never had city officials inspect any completed work, which is required by Irving’s building code.

      In city documents released Monday, the team is listed as the general contractor for the reroofing project that was estimated to cost $600,000. Irving does not issue a building permit unless the general contractor is registered with the city. The Cowboys registered as a general contractor on the same day they requested a permit for the roof work.

      City officials were aware that work began on the roof last year but never received word from the team that it was complete.
      About 70 players, coaches, team support personnel and members of the media were inside. Ambulances transported 10 injured people; two others sought help on their own, officials said.
      Scouting assistant Rich Behm was permanently paralyzed from the waist down after he suffered a spine fracture. Special teams coach Joe DeCamillis successfully underwent surgery Monday to stabilize a fractured vertebra in his neck and was expected to be released from the hospital later this week. Assistant athletic trainer Greg Gaither was expected to remain at Baylor University Medical Center while his broken right leg heals.

      Blame will immediately shift to team owner Jerry Jones, as it should, but what about the city officials? They knew that work had begun on the roof last year but never received word from the team that it was complete? You’re telling me they didn’t know that the Dallas freaking Cowboys were practicing under a roof that was never inspected?

      Either way, there was a tremendous amount of irresponsible behavior that contributed to this tragedy and now a man is paralyzed from the waist down because people didn’t do their jobs. What a sad situation.

      NFL

      Broncos’ owner: ‘We had no other choice but to trade Cutler’

      May 4, 2009 /

      In an interview with Denver Post columnist Woody Paige, Denver owner Pat Bowlen discussed a variety of Broncos-related topics, including how Jay Cutler left the team no choice but to trade him.

      “Honestly, I still don’t know what happened with Jay. I don’t want to throw him under the bus, but I made two phone calls (and there is proof, Broncos executives claim) and left voice mails with my cell number and asked him to call me, and he didn’t,” Bowlen said. “I don’t do e-mails. If Jay had called and said he thought the coach was (not a nice person) and he wanted out of here, I would have said, ‘Let’s work this out.’ But I heard nothing directly from him.

      “Pick up the phone! That’s where we got off the rails. We had no other choice but to trade him. If (the trade talk) was the reason Jay left, he should have left.”

      I feel for Bowlen because he was stuck in the middle of Cutler and new head coach Josh McDaniels during their feud. I think Cutler wanted out the moment Mike Shanahan was fired and he saw an opening when McDaniels attempted to trade for his former quarterback Matt Cassel. Cutler was trying to baby his way out by refusing to deal with the situation like a grown up and McDaniels’ ego wasn’t about to allow him to let a young quarterback bully him around in his first gig as a head coach.

      So I believe Bowlen when he says Cutler never returned his phone calls and thus he had no choice but to trade the QB. What was Bowlen supposed to do? He had just hired McDaniels and I’m sure the new coach was telling him that the team could win without Cutler. In the end, he was forced to make a trade he didn’t want to make and now he just has to hope that everything works out in the end.

      NFL

      Was Rey Maualuga a handful at USC?

      May 4, 2009 /

      According to a report by Michael Lombardi of the National Football Post, one of the reasons why linebacker Rey Maualuga fell in last month’s draft (he was selected by the Bengals with the 38th overall pick after most projected him to go in the first round) was because he was a “handful” at USC.

      Rey Maualuga, the second-round pick of the Bengals, needs to make sure he walks a very tight behavior line in Cincinnati. Maualuga slipped in the draft for a number of reasons, and he must keep his off-the-field behavior in check and not create problems for the coaching staff. In talking to some NFL people, I heard that Maualuga was not always compliant with the rules on and off the field at USC. He was, as one GM said to me, putting it mildly, “a handful.”

      Well, Maualuga wound up in the right place if he’s intent on being disorderly.

      When you think about it, Maualuga slipping into the second round isn’t that big of a surprise. First of all, scouts consider him a two-down linebacker in that he can be a force against the run, but a liability in coverage and thus he’ll have to come off the field in obvious passing situations. And if teams knew he caused coaches grief off the field while at USC, then it makes sense that NFL GMs hesitated taking him in the first round. No pro team is going to want to invest first round money on a player who was known to be (to borrow the exact word from the report) a handful while in college, not to mention will have limitations on the field at the next level.

      The Bengals’ draft this year has boom or bust written all over it, or at least their first two picks do. Andre Smith was the riskiest pick in the first round given all the baggage he carried with him coming into the draft and now it’s clear that Maualuga was a risk as well, even for the second round. But both players are immensely talented and if they can fly straight and just play football, then Cincy might have gotten two steals. Plus, there’s a difference between being a handful and being destructive. We’re not talking about choir boys here and as long as Maualuga can respect his coaching staff and not get in trouble with the law, then I doubt the Bengals care if he’s a bit of a character.

      College Football, NFL, NFL Draft

      Wait a minute…this isn’t a Kevin Smith jersey!

      May 4, 2009 /

      Get a load of this crap:

      Kevin SmithLions season-ticket holder Todd Taylor , who commutes from Chicago to attend Lions home games, and his buddy Jim Allen from Royal Oak were stoked when Taylor won a replica Kevin Smith jersey during the Lions’ draft party at Ford Field.

      But something was strange about the No. 34 jersey.

      The Smith name on the back looked bulky. So they cut it off and were shocked to see the name Jones underneath.

      It appears the Lions repurposed some old Kevin Jones jerseys, turning them into Smith jerseys and gave them away to season-ticket holders.

      “It was kind of a punch in the stomach,” Allen said.

      “Coupled with the frustration of the draft, here is yet another piece of fire thrown in.”

      I guess the Lions had to cutback any way they could after paying Matthew Stafford $41.5 million in guarantees.

      What I want to know is, who had the bright idea to try and get away with something like this? What, did the Lions think that their fans wouldn’t realize that there were two names printed on the back of the jersey? What a joke!

      NFL

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