Now let me be clear.  It does appear that the owners pulled some last minute antics at the end here.  And I can’t blame the players for reviewing one more time and making sure that the deal that they agree to is, in fact, the deal that they want.   But I cannot and will not blame the coaches for the entire problem.  And, if the first preseason game is lost, I won’t put this all on the owners.

Why you ask?  Well, if both sides had been more willing to actually work towards a deal they wouldn’t be facing this deadline.  But no, both sides were, in my opinion, never going to do a deal until the very end.  I believe they were both hoping the leverage of lost games and revenues would pressure the other side into concessions.

Which just confirms that, as much as both sides were talking about the fans, neither side really cares about the fans.  It comes down to what it always comes down to …. the money.

Now I am still a fan, and I still love the game.  But going forward, anything that comes out of the mouths of the league, the owners, or the football players is suspect.  Maybe the only innocents in all of this are the coaches and the other employees of the teams.   Will I look at the players and owners with a little bit of distaste?  For sure I will.

And it’s not about the fact that there was a dispute or a lockout.  I think that is probably the normal order of things in professional sports.  It’s about the deception on both sides to the fans for the sake of money.  Now some may say “Hey the players deserve to fight for more money and benefits.”  Or they might say “The owners are business people and they have to protect their interests.”  And I am ok with that.

But a lot depends on how both sides conduct their business.  I heard Takeo Spikes say yesterday “That’s what they do!” in speaking about the owners.  He was referring to the moves at the end of the process.  But I believe that statement is valid for both sides.   Otherwise this deal could have been worked out a long time ago.

At this point, I just hope it gets done and we have football soon!  But I do blame both sides, not the owners by themselves or the players by themselves.

The bottom line is that it is way past time for this deadlock to be over.  What prompted me to write the obvious here?  People have been saying this for a while right?  Well, I just lost it the other day when some of the talking heads were discussing the new “secret” meetings that had started between owners, the league, and the players.  Because one of the parties was quoted as saying something to the effect of “I believe that now we are in a position to get this thing done”.

Now?  Why now?  Why haven’t they been in position before?  I can tell you why.  It’s about money and greed that’s why.  All of a sudden, both parties have realized that neither side is budging and guess what?  If it goes on much longer, training camp is delayed and preseason games are in jeopardy.  And losing preseason games means losing revenue.

So no matter what either side says, they are both about they money.  Not the fans, not the game itself, just the money.  Now there are, I’m sure some individuals on each side who probably care about something besides the money, but I can’t tell who they are.

What I do know is that it took the sport of professional baseball forever to recover from their last work stoppage.  And they recovered just in time to enter the Steroid nightmare.  Did the NFL learn nothing from this?

All I can say is that, as much as I love football, I might just have to live with college football if these guys don’t fix it and fix it now.  I don’t watch baseball any more and haven’t for years.  Come guys, quit posturing and get it done!

I’m not talking about the laziness of not going hard every play; that’s been know for a while.  And I’m not talking about the lack of a filter when he talks to the press; same answer there.  But his attitude that came out during the post practice meal last week, wow another Ben Roethlisberger.

What do I mean by that?  Well if you remember a lot of the stories that came out after Big Ben got into trouble…. about how many times, when he was called out about something in public, his response typically was “Do you know who I am?”.

Now, when the catered meal was served to the Vikings after practice last Friday, his comments were basically the same type of reaction.  He is above that, according to his standards, at least now that he has “money”.

That sense of entitlement is what I despise about many professional athletes today.  They’ve been blessed with great talent, talent given as a gift by the good Lord by the way, not earned.  And they live in a country where we are crazy enough to pay outlandish prices for tickets, merchandise, satelitte dishes, big flat screen tv’s and other things that allows the owners to pay them ridiculous amounts of money to play a game.

And they believe that they are better than the rest of us?  Well I am as tired of that kind of attitude as I am of the politicians in Washington.  But I guess the Titans are willing to gamble that it won’t become a cancer in their locker room.  Good luck with that Jeff Fisher!

I actually thought that he played ok.  Yes he made some mistakes.  Looked like normal mistakes that a young second year quarterback would make.  Like missing Braylon Edwards in the end zone.   And he missed some reads.  And there was that run early in the game where he slid just early enough to not make the first down.  But I really think the blame for the lack of offense can be shared with a lot of his offensive teammates.

There were some key drops by wide receivers. Shonn Greene had a critical fumble.  Dustin Keller steps out of bounds one yard short of a first down.  And that big sack on third and four.  Plenty of blame to go around here.

Sanchez (much to my chagrin since I’m not a big fan) will probably turn out to be a very good NFL quarteback.  And let’s remember, he only started something like 14 games in college.  So he isn’t even up to the experience level of most second year NFL quarterbacks.

But boy people are all piling on after the game with the Ravens.  And one more thing.  The Jets only lost by one point and the Ravens are a very good football team.  So it may not be doomsday for Sanchez and the Jets just yet.

So I’d like to see everyone give Sanchez a break, at least for now.  But then again, he’s playing in New York and the Jets are the team that doesn’t mind telling you how good they are.  So does he deserve this grief?  Well, who really knows, but I’m going to wait a while before I crucify him as not being able to make it in the NFL and a waste of a first round pick.

If we can successfully take our opinion on the current salaries in the league out of our mind (and this is very hard to actually do), then here are my thoughts on the question.

I have really enjoyed watching the defenses adjust and adapt in recent years to the spread offenses.  And there are a number of things that defenses are having to do.  Disguise what they are doing with many different looks.  Devise new schemes and tactics to deal with the speed and spread of today’s offenses.  And one tactic in particular that seems critical is the ability to put pressure on the quarterback through a variety of new and creative blitz schemes.

Well, it seems to be a given that in order to blitz consistently, you have got to be able to have corners who can play man coverage.  And if you are going to really get after it, that means you are looking for a real shut down cover man like Darrelle Revis.

Now take this one step further.  When I look back over, say, the last ten years in football, I hear young football players planning their career as quarterbacks, wide receivers, running backs, or maybe even linebackers.  I have seldom heard them talk about being a “great cornerback”.

But that could change now.  From 2001 to 2009, cornerbacks’ percentage increase in salary was 138%, second only to wide receivers.  So now maybe more of your really outstanding athletes will want to focus on becoming a really good cover corner.  And what might be the impact?

Well maybe then, the quarterbacks, wide receivers, and offensive coordinators are going to have to get even more creative with their offenses.  Then the defensive coordinators will have to do the same.  And so on and so on and that could be really fun for football fans.

So, I guess in a way, yes the holdout by Revis may end up being good for the game of football in the long run.  Anyway, it will be interesting to see.

I never saw Leinart really lead that team.  I never heard his teammates really endorse him as a guy that they would follow.  Many talk about guys that have “it”, although “it” is hard to define.  For an NFL quarterback,  I believe it is that intangible that makes a guy a leader, someone that every football player on the team believes in and will follow when they step in the huddle.  And I just don’t believe that Matt Leinart has it.

Maybe I’m wrong.  Some would point out the success he had in college at USC.  But when you look at that part of his career, he was surrounded by huge talent, an excellent college coach, and a system that got the most out of the players.  Leinart didn’t have to take a team and carry them down the field sometimes at USC; he had a great team surrounding him.

Maybe I’m wrong and he actually has “it”.  I just haven’t seen or heard any evidence of it in the games I’ve watched him play.

Sorry Matt, but thank goodness you got the big money up front, because I think your NFL career is pretty much over at this point.

First, the offensive line has huge problems to be fixed.  And there really isn’t a playmaker receiver on the squad.  So beyond Steven Jackson, Bradford, if he starts, will be missing a supporting cast to be a winning quarterback in year one.  And he is liable to set an NFL record for number of times sacked if he starts all year.

He did  show in the first preseason game that he has strengthened his upper body and the surgically repaired shoulder when he took a hit and landed on the shoulder.  He got up with no apparent problems, letting the Rams breathe a sigh of relief.

So, if he does end up starting, it will be a long year for the Number one pick.  If he stays healthy through it though, he should have the chance to really take of in years 2 and 3 if the football team builds around him.

Good luck Sam.

Let’s first look at history.  T.O. always ends up throwing someone under the bus when things don’t go his way.  It ALWAYS happens.  And Ocho loves attention as much, if not more than T.O.  Someone in this duo will feel neglected.  Either with not enough passes to them or not enough attention.

And look at how they each view the pairing.  T.O. calls himself Batman with Ocho being Robin.  Ocho, on the other hand, calls himself Clyde and T.O. Bonnie.  Hmmm who’s leading this dance?

The bottom line is too much ego for one wide receiver corps and one football team.  I believe the explosion will happen before the halfway point in this football season.

Now from what I can tell, teammates flew down to Hattiesburg.  And people were apparently talking to him and they probably were talking to him and asking him to come back.  The team with him is in a position to win a Super Bowl.  But did he really have to make it sound the way he did?  I guess no one should be surprised.

The second thing was his announcement that he is back AND that he is retiring at the end of the year, almost in the same breath.  That, to me, means he wants to be the topic of discussion all year long.  You might disagree and that’s ok.  But given his history, I think he talked about it now just to get the attention.

Ok Brett here it is.  Great player, great quarterback, but I am through writing about you.  This is it.  The last time, I promise.  I just can’t do it anymore.  I just had to write this last one, I felt I owed it to the people, but after this many articles, I’m done………

Second, last year and now before training camp this year, he is so overweight and out of shape that he can’t really contribute to helping the team.  So, after accepting a $100 million dollar contract, he won’t honor that contract by working hard to help the team.

All of this points to character problems.  And to look at his character, I guess all you have to do is go back a few years and look at the incident in 2006 when he stomped on the head of Cowboys center Andre Gurode.  Or maybe it’s not really character problems, but no character at all.

Albert Haynesworth appears to me to be nothing more than an incredible waste of talent.  He has shown in the past that he can play the game, and play it well.  But now he either really doesn’t want to play anymore or thinks he can just take the money and show up without working. Either way, I just don’t understand it.