Tag: NFL

Categories
Business

Rich Athletes

The Baltimore Sun: “Despite Smith’s stated desire to remain with the Ravens, the team is just $4.639 million under the salary cap and couldn’t match what he’ll make as a free agent. In addition to the 49ers, Smith has been linked to several teams, including the Oakland Raiders, Houston Texans, Carolina Panthers and Kansas City Chiefs.”

I don’t understand rich people. This probably explains why I’m not filthy rich. Here we have a mega wealthy athlete, making millions of dollars annually to play a game, and he’s balking at the idea of $4 million a year. Wow, that’s a crap ton of money. If he really wanted to stay in Baltimore he would renegotiate his contract and accept less money, right?

“I’d like to stay in Baltimore” is code for this team better find a way to pay me what I want, or I’m bouncing, he doesn’t really want to stay, or he would.

Categories
Football

Urlacher

ESPN: “Urlacher was the perfect Chicago Bear, a Grabowski not a Smith, long on toughness and short on diva.”

The blue collar, workaday, attitude of the Bears, and Brian Urlacher in particular, is part of what made me a Bears fan.

It’s tough to see one of your favorite players kicked to the curb.

Maybe the Arizona Cardinals will pick him up so he can kick the crap out of 49ers for a couple seasons, or maybe he’ll land with Minnesota or Green Bay? That would be pretty interesting.

Categories
Football

Mel Kiper Jr, crack head

ESPN: “Do they want to shell out a huge bonus that ostensibly keeps Manning around for a while? Do they keep him, but draft Andrew Luck and deal with the drama of a perpetual quarterback debate? Do they deal the rights to Luck and recoup a ton of draft picks even though they know, as much as any organization does, the value of sustained great quarterback play?”

Sorry Mel, the title of this post is harsh, but what are you thinking? I know you’re supposed to be an expert on the game of professional football, but why are you even writing this nonsense? Slow news day? Don’t have any NCAA draft picks to talk about? Seriously, this is Peyton Manning we’re talking about. The best Quarterback in the NFL. Yes, that’s right, the best. What other team in the NFL depends on their team more than Indianapolis? I think their 0-11 record tells the story. Hey, when Tom Brady went down in the 2008 season New England went 11-5 with Matt Cassel at the helm. Without Brady New England goes 11-5, without Manning the Colts are currently 0-11 after having a 10-6 season with him.

Please, for the love of Lambeau, stop this nonsense. Peyton Manning belongs in Indianapolis for as long as he can play the game. It would be a shame to let one of the greatest Quarterbacks to ever play the game walk out the door for a kid that’s never played a snap in the NFL? Ever heard of first round pick by the name of JaMarcus Russell? I know, I know, that’s a pretty extreme take on the situation, but how do you know how the kid will play in the NFL, until he’s actually on the field?

Do I believe Luck will be a bust. No, of course not. What’s wrong with the kid backing up a future Hall of Famer? There’s a guy in Green Bay that’s doing amazing stuff after a few years backing up another future Hall of Famer, right? Right.

Stop. Just stop the foolish talk, ok?

Categories
Football

The Packers

Businessweek: “The Green Bay Packers are a historical, cultural, and geographical anomaly, a publicly traded corporation in a league that doesn’t allow them, an immensely profitable company whose shareholders are forbidden by the corporate bylaws to receive a penny of that profit, a franchise that has flourished despite being in the smallest market in the NFL—with a population of 102,000, it would be small for a Triple A baseball franchise.”

I’m from a little town in the San Joaquin Valley of California called Exeter. It’s a tiny farm town. Next to our tiny farm town was the City of Visalia, a city of over 100,000, similar in size to Green Bay. I’ve talked about how unusual Green Bay is to my wife and I’m pretty sure she thinks I’m crazy, but I’d get excited about the thought of having an NFL football team in Visalia. That’s exactly what Green Bay has!

Back when the Raiders were in L.A. a lot of folks joked about having the Visalia, or Fresno, Raiders. Could you imagine? I can’t.

I’ve never been to an NFL football game, never. I love football. I’m a bit jealous of the folks in Green Bay, but I’m also very happy for them. They have a great thing.