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Talks between Colts, Manning going slowly

Feb. 07, 2010 - Miami Gardens, Florida, USA - PEYTON MANNING direct his offense in the first quarter of Super Bowl XLIV at Sun Life Stadium.

While catching the Red Sox-Orioles game on Saturday night, Colts’ president Bill Polian admitted that contract talks between the team and quarterback Peyton Manning are going slowly because of the uncertainty of the new CBA deal.

From WEEI.com:

“It’s bound to have some effect,” Polian told WEEI.com. “What we don’t know is what the system is going forward. It makes it really difficult working out a deal that makes sense for everybody because you don’t know what the [salary] cap will be, what the ramifications are, how things count. All of that makes it a little difficult. We’ve been going slowly along with [Manning’s agent] Tom Condon because we’re trying to formulate some things that will fit no matter what the system is.”

Signing Manning to a new contract is only a matter of time for the Colts, much like the owners and NFLPA agreeing on a new CBA deal. It appears as if one won’t happen until the other gets done, but they both will happen.

But what’s interesting is the potential domino effect that will transpire once the new CBA deal is signed. Manning would probably be the first to get a new deal and it’ll likely be the biggest contract in NFL history. Then the Patriots, in typical Patriot fashion, will wait until the parameters of Manning’s deal are in place so that they can give slightly less to Tom Brady, who is also playing in the final year of his contract. Then, once Tom Terrific is signed, Donovan McNabb can get the contract extension that he’s seeking from the Redskins.

Once all of that happens and the entire state of Alaska melts, I’ll finally get my millions. I’ve put together a diagram below to show the sequence of events that I just wrote about, just in case things were a little confusing above.

New CBA Deal
|
Peyton Manning
|
Tom Brady
|
Donovan McNabb
|
Alaska Melts
|
Me

It’s science.

Nets interview Dumars, Bower

January 18, 2010: Head Coach Jeff Bower of the New Orleans Hornets in action against the San Antonio Spurs during an NBA game in the New Orleans Arena in New Orleans, LA. Tyler Kaufman/CSM.

The New Jersey Nets are considering Detroit GM Joe Dumars and New Orleans GM Jeff Bower to replace Rod Thorn.

Dumars won the 2002-03 NBA Executive of the Year Award. Under his watch, the Pistons went to six consecutive Eastern Conference finals, two NBA Finals and won the 2004 championship.

Bower helped transform the Hornets from an 18-win team in 2004-05, the year before he took over, to a franchise-best 56 victories three years later.

Notice the dates of Dumars and Bower’s successes. Detroit and New Orleans have struggled in recent years with these two guys at the helm.

Dumars did build a championship roster, but he is also the mastermind who passed on Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Carmelo Anthony to draft Darko Milicic and traded away Chauncey Billups in order to rebuild by overpaying Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva just last summer. The Pistons have gotten increasingly worse on his watch.

Bower did pluck budding prospects Darren Collison and Marcus Thornton out of the 2009 Draft, but he also made two miserable trades (for Peja Stojakovic and Emeka Okafor) that have totally handicapped the franchise financially, leading to rumors that Chris Paul would welcome a trade to ‘contender.’

Is this the best that the Nets can do? There is one name that jumps out as a great candidate for this job, and he’s looking for work: former Portland GM Kevin Pritchard.

People take their hot dog eating contests very, very seriously [vid]

Check out the scene at the 2010 Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, where Takeru Kobayashi was hauled off to jail after bum-rushing the stage yesterday in protest of not being able to compete in the event.

It was like watching Frazier without Ali? Dear, Barbara.

Congratulations to Joey Chestnut for winning yet another title belt amidst all the controversy and politics that often surround the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest.

Settlement reached – Evans out as Georgia AD

ATHENS - AUGUST 30:  University of Georgia athletic director Damon Evans (L) and school president Michael Adams put a new collar on UGA VII before the game against the Georgia Southern Eagles at Sanford Stadium on August 30, 2008 in Athens, Georgia.  This game is UGA VII's first game as the official school mascot.  (Photo by Mike Zarrilli/Getty Images)

In not-so-surprising news, the University of Georgia and athletic director Damon Evans, who recently went through a highly embarrassing DUI arrest, have reached a settlement agreement according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. As part of the agreement, Evans is expected to resign on Monday.

Evans, 40, was arrested on a DUI charge after a traffic stop late Wednesday night. Evans refused a breathalyzer test and spent the night in the city jail.

Courtney Fuhrmann, 28, who was in the car with Evans, was arrested for disorderly conduct. A married father of two, Evans called Fuhrmann “a friend.”

When the state trooper who pulled Evans and Fuhrmann over asked Evans why he had a pair of red panties between his legs, Evans replied: “She took them off and I held them because I was just trying to get her home,” the trooper’s report states.

At one point, Evans pleaded with the officer: “I am not trying to bribe you, but I am the athletic director of the University of Georgia,” the report states.

People make mistakes, but athletic directors of major universities can’t make those kinds of mistakes (i.e. the ones were you try to bargain with a police officer to let you out of a DUI while you sit there with a woman who isn’t your wife riding shotgun and her underwear in between your legs).

There’s no way UGA could allow Evans to keep his job. They would have looked like hypocrites if they didn’t fire the same man that was shown in DUI prevention videos before all of the school’s home football games last year who said to the police officer after getting pulled over: “We go through life and we all drink and jump in a car.”

No decision until Thursday, at the earliest?

Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James pauses during the second quarter in Game 5 of their NBA Eastern Conference playoff basketball series against the Boston Celtics in Cleveland, May 11, 2010. REUTERS/Aaron Josefczyk (UNITED STATES - Tags: SPORT BASKETBALL HEADSHOT)

Brian Windhorst covers the Cavs for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, but in a special piece he wrote for ESPN, he outlines the franchise’s multi-faceted pitch to LeBron James.

One takeaway from the article is that Windhorst does not expect LeBron to make a decision before Thursday.

James is expected to take several days to digest everything he saw from the teams. His Nike Skills Academy, the summer’s top camp for high school and college stars, runs through Wednesday at the University of Akron. It is believed he will not disturb the event by announcing his intentions during the workouts.

Well, he may drag his feet a bit, but at least he didn’t subject us to the proposed Free Agency Tour with special Nike shoes for each stop. Rudy Gay and Joe Johnson agreed to early deals, and it looks like Amare Stoudemire is going to sign with the Knicks, so it’s not like LeBron has managed to hijack free agency completely. There has been some movement in the second tier.

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