August 2012 Archive

Dear Evelyn Lozada, Clint Eastwood has something very important to tell you.

I promised myself I wouldn’t blog further about this situation. However, Chad Johnson’s wife made a comment that really annoyed me. Tonight she will appear on ABC’s Nightline (that still comes on? I thought they cancelled it after Rihanna did that interview about Chris Brown). In the short minute or so promo clip Chad’s soon to be ex is appropriately sad and gives the typical practiced lines about headbutting her being “his choice” and how she still loves him and wishes him the best. It’s hard to even watch it without rolling your eyes if you’ve ever seen the undomesticated chimpanzee she plays on Basketball Wives. 

[To read the rest click Read More]

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Practice squad rules have always confounded me. Well maybe not confounded so much as made me kinda sad that guys can’t play on practice squads as a career. Anyway, Adam Caplan who is typically worth a follow on twitter gave out the practice squad rules again. And I figured I’d post it right from the horse’s sulia.

Again, here are the rules for practice squad eligibility

Teams may establish a practice squad of eight players by signing free agents who do not have an accrued season of free agency credit or who were on the 46-player Active List for less than nine regular season games during each of any accrued seasons.

A player cannot participate on the practice squad for more than three seasons.

Teams may begin to fill out 8-man practice squads beginning this Saturday after 12 p.m. ET.

For even more information on practice squads visit SBNation’s concise breakdown here.

Interesting nugget:

Practice squad players are free to negotiate contracts to join other team’s active list (53-man roster) at any time. One exception to this is that practice squad players may not sign a contract with his team’s next opponent after 4pm ET six days preceding the game. That deadline is pushed back to ten days during bye weeks.

Diminutive QB and Philadelphia Eagle Michael Vick doesn’t think he’s injury prone and isn’t particularly worried about the possibilities of future injuries. He referred to previous injuries as “flukes.”

From Philly.com:

“I don’t think I’m injury-prone at all,” Vick said. “I just had a couple of fluke injuries that happened. But it’s not something I’m worried about.”

[To find out why I think Andy Reid needs to put his foot down click Read More]

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Cary Williams is betting a lot on good health and great play.

Football is not a game for the faint of heart. Not only is it physically dangerous and mentally taxing, the decisions players have to make to maximize income carry a high risk. The choice Ravens CB Cary Williams has made this season is a perfect example.

Cary could have signed a longer term contract with the Ravens to stay on with that awesome secondary of Ed Reed, Lardarius Webb and Bernard Pollard. But instead he chose to play out the remainder of his contract and become an unrestricted free agent in 2013. Why? Because if he has a good season this year the market will be much kinder next year than the Ravens would have been this year.

[To read more about Cary Williams contract potential click Read More]

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As players like Maurice Jones-Drew learn, unfortunately your contract is not just about you.

Since the Jags and Maurice Jones-Drew entered their standoff I’ve been reminded of a few things that people don’t seem to understand about contract negotiations and I wanted to quickly address them here.

1. Owners don’t want to be told how to conduct business

2. It’s not just about how  ”great” a player is but whether his presence on the team makes “enough” of a difference with all things considered 

3. The value of a player can go up or down with a contract already in place prompting either side to request a restructure. 

When negotiations and hold outs happen too often people are focused on the fact that the player was given a FAIR deal in the beginning and whether or not the player is “worth” more money based on play alone. But these other factors I’ve mentioned matter just as much and more in many cases.

[To finish reading about why these other factors matter in negotiations click Read More]

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