Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Well look who decided to finally sign an effing contract

Before getting to the titular subject, a couple NFL bits.

1. Given all the allegations of cheating (not only against the Jets, but also last season versus Green Bay), the whole Brad Childress fiasco (non-story, that it is), the celebration at midfield in San Diego, Rodney Harrison's HGH suspension, the acquisition of Randy Moss, The Snowjob in 2001, etc, etc, etc... is there any reason not to think that the Patriots are scum?

2. How screwed up are the Cleveland Browns? More over, how out of his depth is Romeo Crennel? Sending Charlie Frye to Seattle for a mere 6th-round pick after just two and a half quarters of football, having annointed him the starter coming out of preseason (a decision which many generally consider to have a great deal of thought attached to it) might be the final straw. Crennel doesn't know what's going on. If you were this down on Frye, why suffer through playing him over Derek Anderson (and, yes, the not-quite-ready Brady Quinn), when all it took was one bad half of football to say, "You know what? I'm not comfortable having you on the team. Forget what I said minutes ago about you being the starter." Woof. The Browns are going to get mangled by Cincinnati on Sunday.

3. Speaking of the Bengals, they should consider themselves lucky to get the win, last night, for two reasons. 1) That was never an offensive pass interference on Todd Heap and the touchdown clearly should've stood. 2) The Ravens weren't smart enough to just let Willis McGahee barrell through the tackles from 1st and goal on the 1. That's just stupidity.

4. Thoughts go out to Kevin Everett, formerly of the Bills. A crystal clear reminder of how the word "priveledge" -- as in, "It's a priveledge to play in the NFL" -- is well overstated. Your life is on the line. Your well-being is on the line. All you get in return, tangibly, is money (and they, NFLers, deserve every penny they earn). That being said...

5. JaMarcus "$61 million" Russell is finally an Oakland Raider. $32 million in guaranteed money for a guy who might be able to contribute midway through next season. Forget being familiar with the playbook, this year. That ship has long since sailed. He's been on my s-list for a while, now, as I never agreed with the pick to begin with (I was far more in favor of trading down, selecting Calvin Johnson, and using the gained draft picks to help address other needs), but now... Now that Russell is the highest paid rookie in NFL history (and last I checked, rookies -- especially QBs -- were more likely to bust than to succeed), he's got a serious uphill battle to wage if he's going to gain my support. Not that he cares the slightest about that, and, hey, give the man credit for scoring a massive payday. But to me, it's an issue of principal. Far too many have brought the hammer down on the Raiders' organization and tyrannical Al Davis for failing to get this deal done back in July (and that criticism is well-warranted) without giving any grief to Russell's camp. This season is a waste as far as his development goes. So let me ask, how worthwhile will this guy turn out to be? I'm skeptical, to say the least. Now, let's start Daunte and see what happens.

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