HAYNESWORTH ON THE TRADING BLOCK, THE STORY OF THE "MISSING 1200" & SOME UGLY TALK
It looks like Albert Haynesworth's tenure in Washington D.C. might be limited to only one season. New coach Mike Shanahan said his introductory meeting with the $100 million free agent "did not go well." Haynesworth doesn't want to play nose tackle in the new 3-4 scheme the Redskins plan to implement. GM Bruce Allen & Shanahan are so eager to move Haynesworth, the word is they're open to just about any compensation. The Titans, Haynesworth's old team & the Rams have made inquiries. Look for him to return to Nashville. Another thing I'm looking for is a Flozell Adams trip to Washington. The Skins need immediate help at left tackle & the recently released Cowboy could fill that spot, for at least one season. Washington is draft pick poor & if Adams could hold down the left side for this season, it would certainly help. In more McNabb trade fallout, the Skins have told former starting quarterback, Jason Campbell to start exploring employment with another team & his presence at the team's facility is no longer needed. Man, this is a cruel business. Campbell is rumored to be interested in the Panthers & they in he.
One more Redskin note, despite the arrival of Donovan McNabb today, Shanahan & company also hosted Sam Bradford & Colt McCoy as well. The quarterbacks were brought in for an interview & a quick workout. It was already scheduled & tho Shanahan said there was a small window of opportunity for Washington to select a quarterback in the 1st round, I can't see it happening. I see no way McCoy could be drafted by the Skins as they no longer have a 2nd round pick, they used it to obtain McNabb.
Talk about creative scouting, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers brought Brandon Carter to Florida, presumably just to pick his brain. Carter, a 3-year starting guard from Texas Tech, was asked the $64,000 question by the Bucs. Suh or McCoy, who is better? Carter played against Suh & McCoy twice & it should be noted, Carter didn't surrender a sack to either. Carter refused to select one over the other, "I could be teammates with one of them, so it doesn't make sense to answer." He did give kudos to both players, "Suh is the most physical player I ever faced or viewed on film, he's unreal, he never stops coming, never stops fighting." Regarding McCoy, Carter said "he is the smartest guy I ever faced, his recognition skills are the best." Tampa might be in a situation, if Detroit takes an offensive tackle, where they can have their pick between the two defensive stars. If you're not familiar with Carter, he's the Texas Tech lineman who plays with the wrestling-style makeup & extreme Mohawk hairdo. He's quite a character, a late-round draft prospect.
Brett Favre has reached yet another milestone, he's a grandpa. His daughter Brittany gave birth to a baby boy named Parker Brett. He & wife Deena had Brittany when he was only 19, now at 40, he's now a grandfather.
I told you some time ago about the New Orleans Saints intention to remove 1200 seats in the Louisiana Superdome to build additional luxury suites, thereby kicking the season ticket holders out altogether. This move is causing quite a rift between the newly crowned world champs & the New Orleans' community. The Saints' front office is making things worse, if that's possible at this point, by scolding the local media for not supporting their actions. Since when is the media supposed to work as a P.R. firm for the powers that be? Well except for MSNBC. Anyway, Saints spokesman Greg Bensel fired off a nasty email to WWL TV's Bigad Shaban, voicing his unhappiness with Shaban's reportage on this story. Bensel said "how long will this epic story run? Are you guys doing a mini-series? Our ticket guy is in touch with everyone affected & is working closely with them. You run your crawl with breaking news during daytime soaps about this story. I think the story has been covered enough." James Varney of The New Orleans Times Picayune dubbed these out of luck season ticket holders "The Missing 1200." Now the group has started their own website by the same name www.themissing1200.com & I visited it tonight. You have to feel for these people, they wait decades for a winning team & then after one season, they get kicked to the curb. As I told you before, the 1200 will be put at the top of the 60,000 person waiting list. How would you like to be #1 on the waiting list & have 1200 people cut in line, making you #1,201? This is a public relations nightmare that isn't going away & it's a crappy way to thank your loyal fans.
Speaking of bad P.R. let me tell you about former Syracuse wide receiver Mike Williams. He went thru a private workout for 6 teams yesterday at his former high school. Williams is a victim of his own bad decisions. He was suspended for his entire sophomore season. He came back for his junior season & played like the first round talent he is. Then after being suspended for one game this past season, he quit the team in week 6. He doesn't much like talking about what happened either, in fact he can sometimes get downright hostile about it. He was obviously in poor shape at the combine, weighing almost 20 pounds more than he was listed on the Syracuse roster. Many teams have removed Williams from their draft boards. His workout was attended by only 6 teams, a pathetic turnout for a prospect who just 6 months ago was a surefire 1st rounder. To his credit, he was in much better condition yesterday, running 4.53 & 4.55 forty-yard dashes at 220 pounds, posting a 36 1/2" vertical jump & looked very good getting in & out of his breaks. This kid is a major, major talent, but he also pegs the "potential bust" meter with his attitude.
Some of the network NFL analysts were pretty harsh today. ESPN's Trent Dilfer said of Sam Bradford "In my opinion, he's not even close to the best player in this draft. He wasn't challenged in college, if the Rams take him #1 overall, it could be catastrophic." C'mon Trent, don't sugarcoat it, how do you really feel? PFT.com's Mike Florio brought this factoid to light, Jimmy Clausen & Dilfer have the same agent, David Dunn, Sam Bradford is represented by the evil Tom Condon. Florio has been speculating for over week now about the relationship of agents & media members. Does it affect their analysis? This example is just another in a series of questionable comments.
Brian Baldinger of the NFLNetwork.com had this compliment for Donovan McNabb, "Andy Reid can finally stop covering up for one of the most overrated quarterbacks in the history of the game." What was Brian doing, channeling Rush Limbaugh? He continued "McNabb's a flawed player, never more apparent than in the back-to-back losses to the Cowboys last season." If you will recall these two games, 24-0 in week 17 & 34-14 on wildcard weekend, both games were in Dallas. The Eagles surrendered 8 sacks & rushed for 93 yards combined in the 2 games. The Cowboys had 474 yards in the 24-0 game & scored 27 2nd quarter points in the wildcard game. I'm not a McNabb apologist, but to blame him for both of those losses is just plain ridiculous, kinda like the sparkling football career of Brian Baldinger. From Nassau County Jr. College to NFL benchwarmer, Baldinger made a bigger impact on the game after he retired. Don't hold your breath waiting for an interview between Brian & Donovan, don't see that one happening anytime soon.
The Arena Football League kicked off their return season last Friday evening. The league had taken a hiatus for over a year. They combined teams from the old Arena Football League(I refuse to call it the AFL) & the Arena II league. The California teams were eliminated because no one was willing to field a team in the Golden State because of the worker's compensation requirements legislated by the state government. It allows retired players to impose the costs of orthopedic surgeries on former employers, for life. In a league with a very, very small profit margin, this wasn't going to work for prospective investors. NFL teams, which have large profit margins, a players union & a retirement plan, aren't scared of operating in California. I will have to say, I don't see the Los Angeles market getting an NFL team anytime soon. I believe a prospective owner would need something like $2 billion just to get started in SoCal. Any takers?
Comments or questions? You can submit comments at the end of each posting or email me at rich@richsfootballreport.com
One more Redskin note, despite the arrival of Donovan McNabb today, Shanahan & company also hosted Sam Bradford & Colt McCoy as well. The quarterbacks were brought in for an interview & a quick workout. It was already scheduled & tho Shanahan said there was a small window of opportunity for Washington to select a quarterback in the 1st round, I can't see it happening. I see no way McCoy could be drafted by the Skins as they no longer have a 2nd round pick, they used it to obtain McNabb.
Talk about creative scouting, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers brought Brandon Carter to Florida, presumably just to pick his brain. Carter, a 3-year starting guard from Texas Tech, was asked the $64,000 question by the Bucs. Suh or McCoy, who is better? Carter played against Suh & McCoy twice & it should be noted, Carter didn't surrender a sack to either. Carter refused to select one over the other, "I could be teammates with one of them, so it doesn't make sense to answer." He did give kudos to both players, "Suh is the most physical player I ever faced or viewed on film, he's unreal, he never stops coming, never stops fighting." Regarding McCoy, Carter said "he is the smartest guy I ever faced, his recognition skills are the best." Tampa might be in a situation, if Detroit takes an offensive tackle, where they can have their pick between the two defensive stars. If you're not familiar with Carter, he's the Texas Tech lineman who plays with the wrestling-style makeup & extreme Mohawk hairdo. He's quite a character, a late-round draft prospect.
Brett Favre has reached yet another milestone, he's a grandpa. His daughter Brittany gave birth to a baby boy named Parker Brett. He & wife Deena had Brittany when he was only 19, now at 40, he's now a grandfather.
I told you some time ago about the New Orleans Saints intention to remove 1200 seats in the Louisiana Superdome to build additional luxury suites, thereby kicking the season ticket holders out altogether. This move is causing quite a rift between the newly crowned world champs & the New Orleans' community. The Saints' front office is making things worse, if that's possible at this point, by scolding the local media for not supporting their actions. Since when is the media supposed to work as a P.R. firm for the powers that be? Well except for MSNBC. Anyway, Saints spokesman Greg Bensel fired off a nasty email to WWL TV's Bigad Shaban, voicing his unhappiness with Shaban's reportage on this story. Bensel said "how long will this epic story run? Are you guys doing a mini-series? Our ticket guy is in touch with everyone affected & is working closely with them. You run your crawl with breaking news during daytime soaps about this story. I think the story has been covered enough." James Varney of The New Orleans Times Picayune dubbed these out of luck season ticket holders "The Missing 1200." Now the group has started their own website by the same name www.themissing1200.com & I visited it tonight. You have to feel for these people, they wait decades for a winning team & then after one season, they get kicked to the curb. As I told you before, the 1200 will be put at the top of the 60,000 person waiting list. How would you like to be #1 on the waiting list & have 1200 people cut in line, making you #1,201? This is a public relations nightmare that isn't going away & it's a crappy way to thank your loyal fans.
Speaking of bad P.R. let me tell you about former Syracuse wide receiver Mike Williams. He went thru a private workout for 6 teams yesterday at his former high school. Williams is a victim of his own bad decisions. He was suspended for his entire sophomore season. He came back for his junior season & played like the first round talent he is. Then after being suspended for one game this past season, he quit the team in week 6. He doesn't much like talking about what happened either, in fact he can sometimes get downright hostile about it. He was obviously in poor shape at the combine, weighing almost 20 pounds more than he was listed on the Syracuse roster. Many teams have removed Williams from their draft boards. His workout was attended by only 6 teams, a pathetic turnout for a prospect who just 6 months ago was a surefire 1st rounder. To his credit, he was in much better condition yesterday, running 4.53 & 4.55 forty-yard dashes at 220 pounds, posting a 36 1/2" vertical jump & looked very good getting in & out of his breaks. This kid is a major, major talent, but he also pegs the "potential bust" meter with his attitude.
Some of the network NFL analysts were pretty harsh today. ESPN's Trent Dilfer said of Sam Bradford "In my opinion, he's not even close to the best player in this draft. He wasn't challenged in college, if the Rams take him #1 overall, it could be catastrophic." C'mon Trent, don't sugarcoat it, how do you really feel? PFT.com's Mike Florio brought this factoid to light, Jimmy Clausen & Dilfer have the same agent, David Dunn, Sam Bradford is represented by the evil Tom Condon. Florio has been speculating for over week now about the relationship of agents & media members. Does it affect their analysis? This example is just another in a series of questionable comments.
Brian Baldinger of the NFLNetwork.com had this compliment for Donovan McNabb, "Andy Reid can finally stop covering up for one of the most overrated quarterbacks in the history of the game." What was Brian doing, channeling Rush Limbaugh? He continued "McNabb's a flawed player, never more apparent than in the back-to-back losses to the Cowboys last season." If you will recall these two games, 24-0 in week 17 & 34-14 on wildcard weekend, both games were in Dallas. The Eagles surrendered 8 sacks & rushed for 93 yards combined in the 2 games. The Cowboys had 474 yards in the 24-0 game & scored 27 2nd quarter points in the wildcard game. I'm not a McNabb apologist, but to blame him for both of those losses is just plain ridiculous, kinda like the sparkling football career of Brian Baldinger. From Nassau County Jr. College to NFL benchwarmer, Baldinger made a bigger impact on the game after he retired. Don't hold your breath waiting for an interview between Brian & Donovan, don't see that one happening anytime soon.
The Arena Football League kicked off their return season last Friday evening. The league had taken a hiatus for over a year. They combined teams from the old Arena Football League(I refuse to call it the AFL) & the Arena II league. The California teams were eliminated because no one was willing to field a team in the Golden State because of the worker's compensation requirements legislated by the state government. It allows retired players to impose the costs of orthopedic surgeries on former employers, for life. In a league with a very, very small profit margin, this wasn't going to work for prospective investors. NFL teams, which have large profit margins, a players union & a retirement plan, aren't scared of operating in California. I will have to say, I don't see the Los Angeles market getting an NFL team anytime soon. I believe a prospective owner would need something like $2 billion just to get started in SoCal. Any takers?
Comments or questions? You can submit comments at the end of each posting or email me at rich@richsfootballreport.com
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