Extend This
he new football year is upon us and your faithful TALB has returned from my long sabbatical. What’s this? Keyshawn to Carolina? Vinatieri to Indy? The Notorious T.A.G. on the way out? But at least the NFL and its players were able to work out a labor agreement that will ensure that Sunday afternoons (and evenings, and Monday nights, and some Thursdays too) are filled with large men in plastic armor colliding upon the gridiron for enormous sums of money.
Step Right Up
I have never participated in one of these here “Carnivals” that the kids are all giddy about these days. But to those who have come by as a result of Josh Cohen’s Carnival Of The NFL #2 I welcome you with open arms. For all of you “n00bz” to TALB I’ll give you a quick tour. The post (column, buttress, ah whatever) starts off with a quick introductory summary of what will be discussed. Then I divide it up into some categories. I am totally bitin TMQ and MMQB, get over it. During the season TALB starts off with coverage of my favorite NFL team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. At some point I’ll meander over to the Florida Gators (I went there, so you can guess why I cover them). And in between I’ll touch on some subjects from around the NFL and college world. The Running Items section at the bottom is where I try my best to be funny and/or acerbic as I touch on subjects near and dear to my heart (or things I can’t stand).
By way of history, you can read over the very first TALB ever created. Or there is the “Behind The Music” entry from the 2004 season. And the pair of King Of Football posts from 2005 and 2006.
Bargain(ing) Basement
After a deadline extension or two, the NFL and the Players agreed to an extension of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. In short, the CBA was extended through the 2011 season, raised this year’s cap to $102M, and added non-TV revenue from the top 15 teams into the pool of money.
Who are the top-15 revenue generating teams? According to a Forbes article based on the 2005 season they are (revenues in $Millions):
- Washington (287)
- New England (236)
- Dallas (231)
- Philadelphia (216)
- Houston (215)
- Cleveland (203)
- Denver (202)
- Carolina (195)
- Tampa Bay (195)
- Chicago (193)
- Baltimore (192)
- Miami (190)
- Green Bay (189)
- Tennessee (186)
- Detroit (186)
Interestingly enough, Cincinnati and Buffalo were the dissenters. If TALB had to guess, I’d suspect they were unhappy with the level of sharing that was being agreed too. I say this because all along the expected bump in the cap was to be around $10M. It ended up at $7.5M. Which tells me that the compromise was a lower sharing number and that Cincy and Buffalo weren’t too thrilled with the final numbers. But then again, I’ve been known to be wrong.
I still hold by my stance that there should be some kind of veteran exemption so teams can hold on to guys that have been around for several seasons. But, what do I know. I’m just sayin’.
Tags, We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Tags
Don Banks wonders if NFL Commissar, er, Commissioner Paul Tagliabue might just take his victory lap in 2006 and call it a career. And Tags has made it official that he’ll step aside at the end of July. That got TALB wondering. What is the process for selecting a new Commissioner? I don’t remember how it happened back in ‘89 when Pete Rozelle stepped down. Is there some kind of owners’ conclave? A puff of white smoke from a chimney on Park Avenue? Do potential commissioners campaign? Are they anointed?
Then comes the question of who could it be? For a while people have been talking about one Rich McKay as the successor to Tags. Who else is there? Scott Pioli from New England might be a candidate as well. Other than that, I got nothin’. Though Condi Rice won’t be putting her hat in the ring for the job. If anyone cares, I’ll nominate myself to take on the grueling role. Failing that, I’ll put my three beans in with TMQ.
Ch-Ch-Changes
Okay, so a ton of news on the player movement front in the NFL over the last few weeks. TO to Dallas. Brees to New Orleans. Culpepper to Miami. LaVar Arrington released. Edgerrin James to the Cardinals? Radle El to the ‘Skins.
All of the movement of Quarterbacks around the league has all of a sudden made it that much harder for the big name college signal callers to find work. Who at the top of the draft needed a quarterback? Houston, New Orleans, the Jets, Detroit, Oakland, Tennessee, maybe Buffalo. Well, the Saints, Jets, and Lions all picked up guys in free agency or through trades. Houston will be picking Reggie Bush. Buffalo might want to give another guy a shot in their revolving door. Oakland is open, and the Titans could use a guy to take over for McNair one of these days. So you’ve got Leinhart, Cutler, and Young all looking like top-5 draft picks just 30 days ago. Now just one of those guys might go in the top-10. Even though the Jets signed Pennington to a deal, they’ll show just how much confidence they have in him should they select Cutler or Leinhart. Looking past the top-10 in the draft order I don’t see another team that really needs a quarterback that bad. That is to say, there doesn’t seem to be a team that would want to put out first round money on an untested rookie quarterback given that they have at least a solid guy already on the team. Plus, guys like Brian Griese and Jeff Garcia are out there too. In the end, Vince Young is likely to be the odd-man out.
Vander-jackass is out of a job in Indy as the Colts have signed Vinatieri.
Our Pirates In Pewter Pants managed to keep hold of Alstott, Bryant, and Hovan. Though we lost Dexter Jackson (again) and Jameel Cook. They re-did deals for Pittman and Booger as well. Though Brian Griese is now a Bear. And the same story mentions that the Bucs might have an interest in Aaron Brooks. Horrors.
And the prime prima donnas of the NFL; Keyshawn Johnson and TO have new homes. If there’s anyone who can keep Owens in check it just might be The Big Tuna. Hell, he’s kept Meshawn under control hasn’t he? And the Cowboys get to maintain their ego quota for the season as well. Speaking of Meshawn, he’s headed to Carolina where he will be the number two receiver. I wonder how long it will be before he’s not happy in that role. I’d put it somewhere around the Panthers’ sixth loss of the season. “If they’d just get it to me more often I’d take it to the house. All day long I’m open. But Jake keeps tossing it to the other guy instead.” Plus there might just be a little salivation over the thought of Keyshawn and Chuckie in the stadium, twice.
The Patriots have been, over the last five years or so, a pretty shrewd organization when it comes to personnel. But TALB thinks that letting Adam Vinatieri is pure lunacy. Vinatieri signed for 5 years at $12M with $3.5M up front. The Pats were more than $10M under the cap by some estimates. This guy kicked three Super Bowl winning kicks for you, and you can’t shell out maybe $9M (bonus money and the “real” portion of the contract) to keep him around? Some accounts said that the V-Man would have taken a smaller contract from the Pats than what the market was offering him. So make that maybe a $7M commitment to the man. What do I know, I’m just some moron with a blog. Though we can all expect the piling-on in the media should New England lose a close (an important) game because of place kicking. And TALB will join on in with a chorus of “I Told You So”.
Since Last We Met
Some quick thoughts on events that have occurred since the final installment of TALB for the 2005 football season.
- The NFC won the Pro Bowl, and Derrick Brooks was named
MVPOutstanding Player of the game. For what it’s worth, the NFC finally won something against the AFC. Remember the good old days when the NFC ruled the NFL? - Art Shell was named as head coach of the Oakland Raiders, again. Thus filling out the last vacancy in the NFL’s head coaching ranks. A retread coach for a team full of retreads, I like it!
- For what it is worth (and it’s not a lot) the Gators’ 2006 recruiting class was ranked at the top of most services’ lists. I guess we’ll know how that worked out for them about this time in 2008.
- Al and John are back together on the national football broadcasting stage. Longtime Monday Night Football play-by-play man Al Michaels was released from his contract with ABC/ESPN and allowed to sign with NBC to do the same job on their new Sunday Night game. And, as I’m sure you’re aware, he was “traded” for (among other things) the rights to an animated bunny.
- Lawrence Philips has been ordered to stand trial for assault. This stems from the incident a while back where he tried to run over some kids after a pickup football game.
Calendars Marked
I don’t’ get it, the NFL has been releasing bits and pieces of the upcoming schedule for the last few weeks. They started with the home opener for the Saints. And now this week they announce a hand-full of the opening week games and the Thanksgiving contests. The season opener of Miami at Pittsburgh was unexpected, by me at least. Mannings Peyton and Eli will square off as NBC begins their new Sunday Night package. The full sked will be out in a couple of weeks.
The Buccaneers will play their first Thanksgiving Day game ever this year as they travel to Big D on Turkey Day (Fox). The ,a href=”http://www.nfl.com/news/story/9340852″>other games that day will see the Fish face the Lions (CBS) and Denver at Kansas City on the NFL Network that evening.
Spring Has Sprung
All across our great land young men are donning plastic armor and stepping upon the (simulated) field of battle. College football’s Spring practice season is upon us.
In Gainesville, TTNHBC has put his running backs on notice that they are to improve their performance. Even going so far as to threaten to play without a tailback.
Bobby Bowden is also concerned about the Seminoles’ running game.
Down in Coral Gables the focus is on adjusting to big changes all over the team.
Running Items
There’s More To Life Than Football
This is that outside of football item I promised at the end of the season.
Wichita State University’s mascot is The Shocker. Discuss.
Some People Call Me The Space Cowboy
Maurice Clarett indicted for those robbery and weapons charges. Can someone somewhere please get this guy some help?
Grated Cheese
Brett Favre still has not retired.
Plus One Bowl
For the upcoming college season, the BCS will stage their first “plus one” game after the five traditional BCS bowls in order to determine the Mythical National Champion.
Florida vs. Ohio State
Based on nothing in particular…
Super Bowl XLI
Buccaneers vs. ColtsSteelers
See above.
Team TALB
TALB is always looking for fresh insight and additional input. If you want to submit something to be included in TALB, please feel free to contact me and I’ll get it put in the next edition.
King Of Football
As always, feel free to submit your entry for TALB’s King Of Football 2007. It will appear during the off week between the NFL conference championships and the Super Bowl (January 30, I think).
Next Time: Another story about Bush and the draft.
