Do Professional Horse Players Win By Following Horses or Handicapping Races?

Here is a question that has intrigued many would-be horse racing handicappers, "Should I just follow horses or should I actually handicap races looking for profitable situations?"

What an excellent question. Of course, there is another way to profit from horse racing handicapping, too. You can also set your own morning line for value, in other words, evaluate each horse in a race and estimate the break even odds on such a runner. Then you sit back and watch the money before the race looking for that horse that is under valued by the crowd.

Some of the most successful people in any facet of horse racing are those who know pedigrees inside and out. They can trace a runner's lines back five or more generations and tell you the strengths and weaknesses of the major sires and dams in the horse's family tree. These same people would usually lean toward following individual horses. They may even become owners or consultants for buyers of thoroughbreds.

Though breeding is crucial for success in horse racing, it often isn't enough. Many well bred expensive yearlings have failed to win a race. While many fortunes have been made in the breeding shed, they've also often been lost in the sales ring. Horse trading and horse buying has always been considered a risky business.

So those students of breeding who follow a horse and wager on it often also handicap the races that the promising youngster is entered into. They know that it's not enough to know the stride length and blood lines of a horse but also to be realistic and look at the competition in today's race.

On the other side of the coin are the number crunchers or spot play hunters. They evaluate the runners in a contest based on past performances, track models, and the percentages and strengths of the connections. Some trainers are known for winning with young horses or dominating on the turf. That is taken into account when trying to figure out how each runner will do in a race.

The best handicappers use pedigree and handicapping when they evaluate each runner's chances in order to establish a probability. They may lean more heavily on pedigree in the case of maidens or horses changing distance or surface for the first time, or they may really more on current form and racing record in the case of older horses.

The ability to decide which of these categories or factors is most important is what separates the pros from those handicappers who are still trying to show a profit from betting on horse races.

If you want to learn how a horse owner and insider handicaps just go to http://horse-racing-handicapping.co/ and get the truth about betting on horses and winning. Bill Peterson is a former race horse owner and professional handicapper. To see all Bill's horse racing material go to Horse Racing Handicapping, Bill's handicapping store.

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NFL owners approve new labor deal, but keep players way

Jul 21 2011-11: 52 pm | 587 Views | 0 Recommendations | Image by Getty Images via @ Daylife

Thursday marks the beginning of March the most surreal day of NFL lockout still started. Owners approved a new 10-year collective agreement in the early evening by a vote of No 31-0 (Oakland Raiders as the NFL black sheep abstained). A press conference followed with Commissioner Roger Goodell, NFL Attorney Jeff pash and several owners, who led negotiations such as Jerry Richardson, John Mara, Clark Hunt and art Rooney.

The group some of the details provided,. Goodell would announced that the Hall of Fame game will be cancelled. There remains much context from the old CBA in relation to franchise player and a salary cap tagging. Minimum salaries are conducted and a more restrictive rookie pay pool will be available. Many include the announcement of self congratulating over what a great job, this business has made all the owners and all worked as hard to get. Done deal properly, not true? At least according to Goodell that said: "I just spoke with DeMaurice likely before." "He will attend his business to go."

I think, NFL Players Association head, DeMaurice Smith, didn't get the memo. The representatives of the players for each team instead of a conference call Thursday night, where a vote was expected that the business be held to approve. The call ended with no. The vote by owners and lack of coordination of players on the way he said she said about what agreed have been. Owner thought the deal was done, while many players feel they are in a corner is drawn and the bad guys look like if they quickly not draw it. The new CBA was able still to resolved reps be set Friday with a vote of players supposedly happened, but it seems that the NFLPA not stamp the deal is ready.

Some details about the new agreement have begun to emerge. There no opt-out clause by the player or owner, so assuming that reporting on the business with ten years of work peace we are looking for the player. 2011 Salary cap will be set to $120 million or $142 million including benefits. Veterans can be after four years of free agents.

Players will receive 48% of the entire League revenue, down from 51%. It is far from 42% NFL owners first proposed that players should, but could mean how one benefits additional $300 million in the collective operational year for the 32 owners. The NBA would kill to have these problems.

The NFL already by far was the healthiest professional sports league, and it just healthier. The lock was not to resolve something, the (see NBA for) broken, but about owner $9 billion grab a larger slice of the League revenue pie. This cake is set to rise, the League is now to the renegotiation of its current TV contracts that expire currently net teams 3.8 billion per year on average and in 2013. Value of ESPN's new Monday night football pact aimed increase of 70%. Don't expect to get all bargains, CBS, Fox, or NBC, either if they that want their NFL packages.

The NFL remains some of the last must-sea-life programming on television. All the networks had record ratings on their NFL games in the past year and 106 million people in for the Super Bowl between the Saints and Colts. NFL games representing 14 of the 15 most acclaimed programs of the TV season is fall 2010. With a better offer work and more TV money on the horizon have NFL franchise values (average $1.02 billion) still room for additional expansion possibilities.

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Digging in the National Football League new deal with players

Jul 20 2011-10: 28 Pm | 528 Views | 0 Recommendations | Image via Wikipedia

So, my prediction looks last week about be one week.

Still, the NFL for companies will be again and again in the coming days in particular, because they don't want to miss the $800 million in revenue, which the early season provides.

And on the basis of the reports, which we have been listening have on the new CBA look 2 crucial elements be a rookie wage scale and wage and payroll floors.

==

ESPN reported, rookie should include the wage scale these components:

Five year contracts, with a team option for the fifth year.

-If the team option will be exercised, in the fifth year of the top 10 takes would receive a salary in the amount of the average of the top 10 Player salaries to their respective positions. The money would be guaranteed, if the option will be exercised after the third year of the contract.

-If the team option will be exercised, would in the fifth year is 11-32 a salary equal to the average annual number of no. 3-25-salaries at their respective positions get. The money would be guaranteed, if the option will be exercised after the third year of the contract.

And the biggest change is to earn the amount of guaranteed first-round draft picks, which probably will be reduced by about 50%.  M are about $275.  If you don't think that's a big deal monetarily think again.

A review of this website indicates that together around $550 2010 paid NFL teams M in guaranteed money for first-round draft picks.  According to our previous calculations, football, to finance these payments almost 3 weeks would take all the revenue from the previous season.

This is a huge gamble for team executives to take and a King's ransom for players who can ultimately never pan out to get.  Sam Bradford of the St. Louis Rams and Ndamukong Suh Detroit Lions alone received $50 and $40 M in guaranteed money in 2010 as the top 2 picks.  That was almost 1/6th of the entire pool of guaranteed money, was the first-round picks!  Fortunately are for these teams, those investments likely pay in the long term based on early returns.

But the new system makes rookies earn their keep (as she should), and much less Alka-Seltzer for executives in the past risked her career by investing millions in later flops means.

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Any system that gets significant revenue share must also impose "Wage and payroll of floors", so that teams invest lower sales 'shared money' in her team are again, instead of pocketing the money.  Each professional sports league with significant revenue sharing pay and payroll floors should have from the perspective of justice.

Do you hear me, major league baseball?

That was NFL CAP to $123 million in 2009 and 2010 was an uncapped season, these work negotiations in advance.  According to John Clayton of ESPN not only is that new CBA to fall back a cap at $120 million (actually on $141 M, but $21 M strictly associated with benefits is), but it will probably force teams, more than 90 percent of the salary cap in cash at any time set.  That would mean $108 M for the season 2011.

Based on this list of wage and payroll team at the start of the season 2010, have looks like Tampa Bay, Kansas City, Jacksonville, and Arizona take some issues in the next few weeks.

Spend it smart remains to be seen.

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Are you ready for some Football…transactions?

You better Be…because the next 2 weeks is how feel pro football version of the frivolous franchise.

Except instead of Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and a bevy of babes, it is Logan Mankins, Vincent Jackson and a bevy of beasts, which can be always ready to give what they seem American sports fans without life.

With rookie wage scales and wage- and salary levels in place, the existing system for the hunt for Super Bowl glory is much more effective and equitable than in recent memory.

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Dr. Patrick Rishe is an associate professor of Economics at the Walker School of business at Webster University in St. Louis, as well as Director of sports impact.

Follow Patrick on Twitter @ SportsDocRock or visit www.patrickrishe.net

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NFL and players getting closer and closer to 'Yes'

Jul 19 2011-1: 17 pm | 379 Views | 0 Recommendations | Image via Wikipedia

I think the doors unlock soon, but let us proceed with caution. As I always say, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.

Core solutions this is the time for horse trading of links on the table, which means an opportunity for concessions are made, and opportunity for emotions run high yet again.

Some of the problems still play in the way we are close to the finish line:

Resolution of Brady v. NFL: If the eighth circuit allows the NFL lock continue for an indefinite period, which was the death knell for any strategy to this pending by the time it takes to go to court. While players have a strong case, the court calendar is their nemesis.

Resolution television lockout financing case: Judge Doty awarded bronze lockout financing not made of the owners at the expense of TV revenue maximizing. Players will argue for this award; Owner view them as part of the global settlement.

Resolution of unpaid 2010 benefits: the pros and cons for an uncapped 2010 year was one of the owners opportunity, benefits, an amount of 320 million US dollars ($ 10 million per team) store. Players will argue, the entire amount, restore, or at least some of them; Owners consider it as an important trade-off for the not limited 2010.

Franchise-day protection for the plaintiff name: this is perhaps an argument "it does not hurt to questions," how the owner was asking for rights right of first refusal for free agents.

Other outstanding issues include: retrospective application of the personal behavior policies while the workers of compensation rules limit in each State, the "Legacy Fund" to determine the amount and source of funding for past - and future - retired players, drug-testing in the application and discipline/appeals, etc..

Again, is not to say the listing of these issues, a business is not going to happen, but all in negotiations know that close problems are important and often difficult. The return of the intermediary Arthur Boylan is key to the resolution of these outstanding issues.

Breakthroughs

Even though the rookie pay structure took to negotiate a long time and received much attention, we have known for years that the top picks in the draft would be sacrificed; the only problem was how much and for how long. That problem was important, but not one of the two breakthrough questions, how to see them:

The revenue split

The players have their formula; the owners have their percentage.

According to previous accounting methods, the Setoffs and credits in $1 billion contain above - the players were able to simplify the pot from which the income is divided money: all revenueregardless of billing, credits, etc..

All along was to the percentages, player request/demand equal partners with owner and still be split 50/50 . The owner balked, saying that 50 / 50 was the previous formula had worked out and was the reason for their opt-out of the agreement. Required to / them better.

You got it, a few percentage points, worth about $ 200 million now, extract, and rises. Owners get around 52% and 48% provisions in the future for owners have to take a higher in certain sales targets, although players have capital protection immersion under 46.5% with their share never (owner's initial offer was 42%).

It is an interesting twist of this year's revenue split, with the proportion of the player or team CAP, expected to be about $ 120 million. Take a player on their roster and contact a $3 million "Exception" , his cap free of charge to reduce can by this amount. And in 2012, they apply a $1.5 million "exception" , a player CAP to reduce free of charge by that amount. These were concessions by owners to players a 4.5 million dollar per team give gift to conclude the agreement even though the guaranteed spend (see below) to the number of $120 million is predicated

Except for this $3 million this year to DeMaurice Smith and the NFLPA "sell", that the CAP number gleiche-is 123 million US dollars , as it was in 2009, in the last year with a Cap.

Spend the guaranteed

NFLPA guide me question what should be their priority, I replied: "get cash CAP spending." Cap numbers have no significance without quality assurance that will spend teams of the number (I know, I managed a CAP).

The NFLPA seems to have reached this important profit. The cap on a league-wide basis, which means that they must together about spending $ 3.8 billion (higher in the coming years) with cash have a "guaranteed spend" bar of 99% teams now.

It is important to note, that in the end, not the beginning of the year, will be charged expenses so that teams need not free agent spending spree, to fulfill your request; You can this player by resignation core during the whole season.

So, although that was somewhat lower than be CAP in 2009, the owners must spend now, that number. The present system, not entrust.

More than anything else, these two issue resolutions have led an agreement us to the abyss. We will flesh out more, if we get more details. Stay tuned.

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NFL lockout: Why the players voted not

Jul 22 2011-3: 26 pm | 671 Views | 0 Recommendations | Image via Wikipedia

Amid reports that the owners last night to approve a settlement agreement prepared is fans and media members alike an end to the lockout call. Most questions, why still adopted the players woke up this morning did not approve, and I see enable public sentiment against them.

Here is the situation, as I understand it… have currently.

The players and owners verbally agreed a new collective agreement terms and conditions. Recently at Forbes explains how, must it close but first a settlement agreement on the trial run. Then players Association would have to certify (the a majority of players required) and a new agreement should be signed by both sides.

At the moment we need to have created you only vote to approve the owners that appear a settlement agreement. You have signed she recertifying how players Association from Tuesday and a new CBA period of three days of the settlement in conditions, built.

Here's where the problems start. Last time that recertified players Association after a court settlement (1993), the CBA mirrored the settlement agreement. This is not the case this time. This time the owner of the player, the complaint, based on nothing more than a verbal agreement between the parties to rules demand. In writing, the players have not seen the new CBA. You are invited to present the owners with a written agreement that fully reflect the verbal to trust.

What happens, if the owner they present with a CBA differs from what agreed as orally and reach the players not to an agreement with the owners in three days? Now, the players have no legal proceedings, players Association will be certified again and the old CBA will be in place for the next ten years. This is to take a big risk for the players.

Even rather than reverting to the old CBA is that the players feel under pressure, a CBA accept that them some, but not all of them during the oral agreement were always giving. I can imagine, when the owners decided to play with conditions, the player page, would hold deal sweet enough to keep reverting to the last CBA.

I think if the owners were really ready to get this deal done and the up arrow and were up, she would have included the new CBA in the settlement. It is not you in the agreement, as simple as the saying goes "after the approval of this Convention by the Court of Justice, the players vote certify the NFLPA and run a collective agreement in the form as addendum A.", which tells me that they are still trying to get the upper hand.

Here is an analogy. What is, if you had an offer from a competing company. Their current employers required be verbal, give you a more lucrative contract. However you must reject the other offer, before you get, to see your new written contract of employment. What would you do?

The lawyer for the players, Richard Berthelsen, advised them in an e-Mail last night, that force the owners to certify the players violated labour law. I would imagine that they are advice without seeing the new CBA also players of the risks when approving this settlement agreement. That tight schedules have outlined the owner pressure on the players act quickly. Public mood following the announcement of the owners voting last night brings additional pressure on the players.

At this point, I would be shocked if the players voted today to approve the settlement.

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Lockout looms, build business and other career players.

Buffalo Bills Shawne Merriman lights out clothing started in 2002. The clothing line is marketed in Wal-Mart stores and been named the official transmission of the ultimate arm wrestling league. «more»

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NFL-lockout vote: municipality of score players will lose both money and public relations battle

If I "am Michael Jordan out of retirement, that he did it, returned with two words back."

The NFL lock can end up very well as well.

ESPN's John Clayton reported that NFL said owners of the League, to be prepared, on new CBA between 3.30 pm and 5:30 P.m. EST today vote evening. Yes, as it is today. Sit back and drink for a moment. Since March, we start was anticipating and then to the current block. It could end all today.

While the emotions run high and fans start to free the look ahead Agency, the preseason and any of the 9/11 season opener, prepare for removal, see tons of articles who won this thing. It is not really debatable.

Must read: 17 notable rookies sure to bust in the NFL

The owners come way ahead on this, no matter how you look at it.

Owner retained 52 percent all football sales - the players actually wanted a 50-50 split. This is but one point that really does wonder me why the lockout was launched anyway. The players and information will show, took the same deal in fact, that the owners were in March to offer.

The owners wanted a rookie wage scale - one will put in place this offseason. Owners wanted more money for veterans, they have it. What fight the players in this lockout? Frankly, someone please tell me what the players won here?

Owners get a product on the field without losing games to the lockout, reinvest, who dearly in the long run might have cost.

The players were able to get up and really fight for what they wanted (less training camp, not another two days, more revenue pie, etc.), but eventually she fell property. They have also, on the way, a sour taste in the mouth of many of of so greedy, selfish, and ignorant.

End the lockout? A NFL trade would happen each team to see how

You have four players a contract regardless of which around 1,900 players you supposedly just lying around players who openly take advantage on the timeline, to their agents and attempts, changes at the last minute in Plans…all it to represent, is used to convey attempts to alienate the fan base and the general public by the players.

While at the end of the day, we all will be happy that the lock finally is over, once lucky enough it subsides, it is clear that the owners won the day.

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By Matt Miller featured bleacher report NFL columnist

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PFT: Players, owners return to talks Wednesday

Posted by Mike Florio on July 11, 2011, 9:50 PM EDT Getty Images

As the NFL and the players attempt to iron out whatever wrinkles remain in the labor negotiations, the lawyers are expected to spend Tuesday dwelling on the details before the principals return to the room.

Both Albert Breer of NFL Network and Sal “45 Down” Paolantonio of ESPN reports that the owners and players, along with Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFLPA* executive director DeMaurice Smith, will be back on Wednesday.

Per Breer, the lawyers for the two sides met for roughly five hours on Monday, after caucusing privately.  They’ll get together again tomorrow.

Paolantonio says that mediator Arthur Boylan will monitor progress via e-mail, and that he’s available for “a short phone call or two” if necessary.

Though we respect Boylan’s ability to take his vacation, speaking from the perspective of a guy who’s currently on vacation, there’s plenty of time in the day to take a short phone call or two.

Tweet Posted by Mike Florio on July 12, 2011, 9:17 AM EDT Reuters

We’ve done several lockout-related polls, and the outcome has shown much more support for the owners’ positions and interests than would be expected from the average fan.

It’s time to do one on the rookie wage scale.

On Monday, we obtained a copy of the memo breaking down the respective positions of the league and the players.  As to the critical question of paying first-round draft picks, the owners want the first 32 players selected to be required to sign four-year contracts, with a team option for the fifth year.  For the first eight players in round one, the fifth-year pay would be 150 percent of the average salary of a starter at the player’s position, with a floor of $6 million and a ceiling of $12 million.  For the next eight players in round one, fifth-year salary would be 125 percent of the average starter, with a guaranteed minimum of $5 million and a limit of $10 million.  For the second half of round one, pay in the fifth year would be the average salary at the player’s position, with no minimum pay figure.

The players have proposed instead as to the first 16 rookies picked a fifth-year option salary based on the average pay for the 10 highest-paid players at the position. For the second half of round one, the players have proposed an option-year salary based on the average pay for the 20 highest-paid players at the position.

Since the problem the league purports to be addressing relates to the payment of gigantic amounts of guaranteed money to rookies who never earn it, we continue to be confused by the league’s reluctance to reward in year five a player who has earned his pay in years one through four.  It makes us think we’re missing something.

So we’ll leave it to you to let us know whether we are.  Cast your vote in the poll pasted below.

Tweet Posted by Michael David Smith on July 12, 2011, 9:16 AM EDT

In the 1990s, one of the best barstool debates for NFL fans was whether Barry Sanders or Emmitt Smith was the best running back in the league. But while that may have been (and may still be) a fun argument for fans and members of the media, it’s not an argument that Sanders will participate in.

Asked in a radio interview if he was better than Smith, Sanders answered, “I would never say that. He was too great of a player, and I loved competing against him.”

Sanders might not want to get into it, but the rest of us can. The arguments for Sanders are that he was more of a big-play threat than Smith, that he averaged 5.0 yards a carry to Smith’s 4.2, and that he was doing it behind a much weaker offensive line, and without a great passing game to keep defenses honest. The arguments for Smith are that he lasted longer, racked up 3,000 more career yards, was better in short yardage and did much more in the postseason.

At least, those are the bare-bones arguments. I’m sure PFT Planet will go into more detail below. I’ll get things started by saying that my vote, admittedly biased as someone who was a Detroit-area 12-year-old when the Lions drafted Sanders, goes to Barry.

Tweet Posted by Josh Alper on July 12, 2011, 8:54 AM EDT Getty Images

Checking in with Bills DT Marcell Dareus’s preparation for his rookie season.

The Dolphins don’t have many big moves to make in free agency.

Said Patriots coach Bill Belichick of Mike Vrabel, “Mike Vrabel is as well-suited for coaching as any player I have ever coached.”

Jets QB Mark Sanchez took a fan to the premiere of the latest Harry Potter film.

WR Derrick Mason said he’ll retire if the Ravens win the Super Bowl.

The family of former Bengals RB David Turner is looking for more answers about what led to his death in an altercation with police.

RB Jason Snelling would be an interesting player for the Steelers to look at in free agency.

Was 2010 Texans WR Andre Johnson’s most impressive season?

Rob Rang of CBSSports.com thinks Stanford QB Andrew Luck has mental aptitude to rival Colts QB Peyton Manning.

A look back at the first home win in Jaguars history.

Titans RB Stafon Johnson is involved in an effort to improve the health of kids in Los Angeles.

Former Broncos TE Shannon Sharpe will be presented for induction at the Hall of Fame by his brother Sterling.

LB Andy Studebaker thinks his time with Mike Vrabel on the Chiefs will help him become a starter.

Another list of free agents with Raiders CB Nnamdi Asomugha at the top.

The legacy of Chargers QB Philip Rivers is already being discussed.

The Cowboys could cancel training camp in San Antonio very soon.

Eagles DE Brandon Graham hopes to get medical clearance to return to action in September.

Reasons for optimism and pessimism about each of the Redskins rookies.

It is looking less likely every day that the Hall of Fame Game will be played.

Is Packers QB Aaron Rodgers the best choice to lead a NFL team in 2016?

The Vikings need to find a replacement for S Madieu Williams.

Have the Saints hit a stumbling block in the NFC South race?

The latest “timeline” for a labor deal would likely save the Buccaneers’s trip to London.

Said Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald of his contract ending after the 2011 season, “If they want to keep me they’re going to have the first option to keep me. If they don’t, then obviously I have to find employment elsewhere.”

Taking issue with former Rams RB Marshall Faulk’s decision to have his agent present him at the Hall of Fame ceremonies.

Are the 49ers going to move Nate Clements to safety?

A closer look at Seahawks rookie CB Byron Maxwell.

Tweet Posted by Michael David Smith on July 12, 2011, 8:35 AM EDT Getty Images

Can Cam Newton start for the Carolina Panthers from Week One? He thinks he can — and he says that if he gets that chance, he’s not going to blow it.

“If the opportunity presents itself, whatever that opportunity is, I’m willing to take it,” Newton told the Charlotte Observer. “Simple and plain. And the last thing that I want or need is if that opportunity presents itself and I’m not ready and I’m not prepared for the opportunity. Because you only get one chance at greatness. If you pass on that, it very well could be no other time. Some people get two times, three times, even four. But you can’t be ticked off if that opportunity presents itself and you look yourself in the mirror and say, ‘I failed.’ Or ‘I wasn’t ready.’”

Newton says that if he’s not ready to go from Week One, he’s not going to blame the lockout.

“I had every single opportunity to be successful, working at it,” Newton said. “I got the playbook. And everybody’s in my situation. I would be somewhat disgruntled if every team in the NFL had minicamp and training camps and just the Carolina Panthers didn’t. But everybody is suffering from this.”

In other words, Newton is putting it out there right now: If he’s a bust, there’s no one to blame but Newton himself.

Tweet Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on July 12, 2011, 8:30 AM EDT AP

While the rest of the football world waits for the NFL and NFLPA* to get their act together, the Browns are playing football.

And since there isn’t a lot else going on in the football world this Tuesday, we thought we’d bring you some notes from the fourth “Camp Colt [McCoy], courtesy of Mary Kay-Cabot of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, who is on the scene in Austin, Texas.

1. About 30 players showed up for the sessions.  They are staying at a resort in Austin, while McCoy brings them around to his favorite barbecue places.  The first day compromised of a lot of classroom/tape work, then two hours of practice in 103 degree weather.

2. Rookies Phil Taylor and Owen Marecic met their teammates for the first time. Taylor worked out separately like most of the defense during the offseason, but this was a full-squad session.  Marecic was still in classes at Stanford.

3. Cornerback Sheldon Brown is coming off rotator cuff surgery and is limited in practice.  He says he’ll be ready when he needs to be.

4. This very well may be our last players-only practice report in a while. Perhaps a decade.  Let’s hope so.

Tweet Posted by Michael David Smith on July 12, 2011, 6:54 AM EDT Getty Images

The death of Pro Football Hall of Famer John Mackey, whose post-NFL life was a mess of health problems, has fellow Hall of Famer Gale Sayers feeling angry that the league and its players didn’t do more for Mackey.

Sayers told the Chicago Tribune that the NFL could have done more to help Mackey, who suffered from dementia and spent his final years in an assisted-living facility.

“You know, John Mackey died at 60-something [69],” Sayers said. “[The NFL] could have helped him more, I felt. But they didn’t, and the players could have helped more, and it didn’t happen.”

Although Sayers says he personally is doing fine and doesn’t need any assistance, he seems to be angry that the people making money in today’s NFL don’t show more appreciation for the people who built the league.

“There is no question that the game wouldn’t be a game if it wouldn’t have been for those people who played in the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s and ‘60s. The players today are on our shoulders. They think they made the game the way it is today. And they didn’t,” Sayers said. “The [pioneers of the game] played for $5,000 a year, or $10,000 or $15,000. They played for that much money so that these players got $10 million or $20 million a year. Today’s players think they did it by themselves. It’s unbelievable how they could think and feel that way.”

Tweet Posted by Michael David Smith on July 11, 2011, 8:20 PM EDT AP

Last month we noted that the mother of one of Terrell Owens‘ children was suing him for failing to pay child support. Now the woman’s lawyer says the situation has been handled.

Melanie Paige Smith, who has a child with Owens, filed court papers on June 20 in Atlanta, saying Owens refused to pay the full $5,000 a month he owes. But the Associated Press reports that her lawyer, Randall Kessler, has now filed court papers to dismiss the request that Owens be held in contempt, saying that Owens has made the payments.

There have been conflicting accounts of how many children Owens has. An episode of The T.O. Show featured two of his daughters meeting each other for the first time. Owens said in an interview last year that he has a three-year-old son whom he’s never met because of hard feelings between himself and the boy’s mother. It is not clear whether Smith is the mother of one of those children.

Tweet Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on July 11, 2011, 7:34 PM EDT Getty Images

One thing that’s easy to forget when considering Adam “Pacman” Jones’ recent troubles: The guy was no lock to make the Bengals roster anyway.

Jones is a nickel back coming off neck surgery.  Check that: two neck surgeries.  Evan Silva noticed this section from a Bengals.com article:

“Adam Jones indicated in a Channel 9 interview Sunday following his disputed arrest in a Cincinnati bar that he “just had” surgery on the neck he injured last season,” Geoff Hobson writes.

Jones also had neck surgery last October.  So unless he was referring to that one (while wearing a neck brace), it appears Jones has undergone two surgeries of late.

We’ve counted Pacman out too early before, but this combination of events could wind up marking his eighth and ninth life as an NFL player.

Tweet Posted by Mike Florio on July 11, 2011, 6:49 PM EDT Getty Images

It’s now widely accepted that the last remaining major issue to be resolved between the league and the NFLPA* relates to the rookie wage scale, a formula for paying players taken at the top of the draft far less than they’ve been otherwise making.

The two sides really aren’t all that far apart.  Based on a summary of the situation that the NFLPA* recently provided to player reps, a copy of which we have obtained, three main points need to be ironed out.

First, the owners want first-round picks to be subject to a maximum of four-year contracts plus a team option for the fifth year.  For the first eight players in round one, the fifth-year pay would be 150 percent of the average salary of a starter at the player’s position, with a minimum of $6 million and a maximum of $12 million.  For the next eight players in round one, fifth-year salary would be 125 percent of the average starter, with a minimum of $5 million and a maximum of $10 million.  For the second half of round one, pay in the fifth year would be the average salary at the player’s position, with no minimum.

The players have proposed instead as to the first 16 rookies picked a fifth-year option salary based on the average pay for the 10 highest-paid players at the position, which essentially is the same formula used for the transition tag.  For the second half of round one, the players have proposed an option-year salary based on the average pay for the 20 highest-paid players at the position.

Next, the owners have proposed an overall dollar limit on rookie contracts of $840 million.  This would result in no additional money for players taken in rounds two through seven above minimum salaries (and, presumably, a slotted signing bonus).  The players, in contrast, have proposed a total dollar limit of $884 million, which would provide players taken in rounds two through seven a chance to negotiate salaries higher than the minimum salaries.

While the owners want to spend $44 million less per year on rookies, that’s $44 million that would go to veterans and retired players.

Finally, the league wants to impose penalties on rookies who hold out at some point during the term of their rookie contracts.  The players oppose this proposal.

The players’ financial proposal would result in savings of $157 million per year, and $1.099 billion over the expected 10-year term of the new CBA.

We’re told that, on Friday, the talks bogged down over the issue of how to pay the first eight picks.  Call us crazy, but it seems like the two sides are pretty close to a deal on that point.

It also seems like the league should accept the players’ offer.  Why shouldn’t a player taken in the top half of the draft who has played well enough in his first four years get top-1o money at his position if the team wants to keep him for a fifth year?

Again, the owners seem to be banking on the rest of the players eventually selling out the top eight draft picks.  And maybe in the end they will, especially since they’re really not fighting over all that much money.

Either way, if this is the only issue left, the two sides aren’t at the five yard line.  The ball is practically kissing the plane of the end zone, and both sides simply need to find a way to avoid pulling a DeSean Jackson.

Tweet Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on July 11, 2011, 5:20 PM EDT

On Saturday, the lawyer for receiver Hines Ward said his client was not impaired when arrested for a DUI over the weekend.  The police report from the incident tells a different story.

Cops who pulled Ward over said he had bloodshot, glassy eyes, according to the Associated Press.  He failed a series of field sobriety tests, and was pulled over after Ward’s car hit a curb in Georgia.

We’re a little confused why Ward would so vehemently deny the charges when he knew he failed tests and the police report would inevitably come out.

Not owning up to the charges will only bring about more negative attention.

Tweet Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on July 11, 2011, 4:58 PM EDT

Not everyone is feeling optimistic about a labor deal being approved by July 21.

One nameless NFL player that spoke to Pete Prisco of CBSSports.com believes the owners are using the media to pressure players into a deal.

“All that is hype coming from the owners side to try and put pressure on us to do a deal. They want to make us look bad. It’s simply not true. There is a lot of work to be done. They are not close,” the player said. “Consider where that information is coming from, it’s the owners. Their reason is to try and create all this false hope to put more pressure on us.”

While we’d love to know if the player has direct knowledge of daily labor developments, his point is fair to consider. It wasn’t long ago we heard the end of June as a realistic target. Then July 4, then July 15, and now July 21.

The player says he’d be “shocked” if we had a deal in 10 days.

“Do it one-on-one like their predecessors used to do. When Gene Upshaw and Paul Tagliabue went into a room, they got it done. That’s what needs to happen now,” the player said. “The players in there are smart, but they don’t know how to close a deal. As for Goodell, he needs to drop his nuts. He needs to have the power to do a deal. It needs to be two guys in a room.”

Tweet Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on July 11, 2011, 4:08 PM EDT Getty Images

After one particularly big win during the Patriots’ run early last decade, Bill Belichick warned his players about the media love they were about to receive.

“They’re going to come in here and blow smoke up your ass,” Belichick said according to Michael Holley’s excellent document on the era Patriot Reign. “They’re going to give you b–w jobs, tell you how great you are, they’re going to pile it on thick.”

Belichick finished his talk, looked at his players, and noticed Mike Vrabel’s hand was in the air.

“Yeah, Mike,” Belichick said.

“What was that you were saying about b–w jobs?”

The team died laughing. By all accounts, that moment is Vrabel in a nutshell.  He was quick enough to make the joke, and knew he was respected enough by Belichick to pull it off. Vrabel had great instincts on the field and in the classroom; he knew Belichick got a kick out of him.

(As Tom Curran points out in a great piece on CSNNE.com, Vrabel was a world class smart ass.)

There were better Patriots during the team’s three-championship run, but perhaps no player other than Tom Brady embodied the era better. Vrabel was versatile, which Belichick prizes. The new Ohio State linebackers coach lined up at outside linebacker, inside linebacker, and famously at tight end. He could stop the run as well as he could cover.

He was known for his athleticism and leadership. He played with an edge, yet was perhaps defined by his intelligence. Holley wrote how coaches were continually surprised at the amazing recall Vrabel had of formations and tendencies of opponents.

“During his Patriots career, there was no player more respected for his football intellect and revered for his leadership by his teammates than Mike,” Belichick said in a statement Monday. “He was elected a team captain by his peers and is a player who I think everyone knew was destined to become a coach after his NFL playing career was over.

“Mike Vrabel is as well-suited for coaching as any player I have ever coached. He has a tremendous feel for people, players, coaches and what his team needs regardless of the situation. He is outstanding in his knowledge of the game, which contributed to his excellence as a player. I have no doubt Mike will develop tough, intelligent, fundamentally sound winners.”

Drafted by the Steelers, but barely used until he got to New England, Vrabel will ultimately be remembered as one of the catalysts to New England’s title run.

“He is a champion in every sense of the word and I’m confident all of these qualities will make him a great coach,” Chiefs G.M. Scott Pioli said Monday. “I cannot overstate my respect for him as a person and a football player. If there were a Hall of Champions, Mike Vrabel would be a first ballot selection. ”

Vrabel won’t make the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but that’s not the point.  Those Patriot teams weren’t about the stars.  Heck, Brady is the only surefire Hall of Fame player from the run. (Richard Seymour, Adam Vinatieri, Ty Law, and Rodney Harrison will have arguments.)

Vrabel stuck out, even on a team greater than the sum of its parts. On this day, he deserves a little smoke blown up his ass.

Tweet Posted by Mike Florio on July 11, 2011, 4:05 PM EDT AP

When word broke of Pacman Jones‘ latest arrest, we pointed out that, if he remains on probation for any of his past guilty pleas, he could be facing a separate problem.

Unfortunately for Pacman, he has not yet completed probation in Las Vegas due to charges arising from the NBA All-Star weekend rainmaking, which led to some gunshooting.

Per the Associated Press, Clark County District Attorney David Roger will review whether Pacman violated the terms of his probation.  Roger said that a decision to pursue, or not pursue, the matter may not come for “weeks.”

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Jones had served only five months of a one-year probation term.

Typically, an effort to prove the violation of a probation order entails a much lower legal standard than “proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”  And that would make it easier for Roger to put Pacman what New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg calls “the slammer.”

That’s why it was even more important for Pacman to constantly avoid any situation that could potentially lead to a claim that he jeopardized the probation order that kept him out of jail.  Early Sunday, he failed.  It remains to be seen whether that means, after more than 10 legal problems since joining the NFL, he’ll finally do time.

Tweet Posted by Mike Florio on July 11, 2011, 3:36 PM EDT

Whenever folks leave their jobs on terms characterized publicly as voluntary, it’s common if not routine to wonder whether it wasn’t voluntary at all.  Today’s candidate for game that should be known as “The Pursuit of Other Interests” is Redskins’ COO Dave Donovan.  The team has announced that Donovan is returning to the firm at which he practiced law before becoming a full-time employee of the Redskins.

Per our friends at CSNWashington.com, Donovan disclosed the decision during a Monday staff meeting.

“We want to thank Dave for his years of service with the Redskins,” owner Daniel Snyder said in a statement issued by the team.  “Even though he is returning to the law firm where he worked prior to joining the team, he will continue to consult with the Redskins as he did prior to joining the organization.  We look forward to continuing our relationship and wish him the best of luck in his new position.”

Said Donovan:  “I have had a great six years with the Redskins.  It has been an experience I will always appreciate and never forget. For personal reasons, I am returning to partnership in the law firm that I left in 2005.  I am thrilled that I will have the ability to continue my relationship with the Redskins.  I would like to thank Dan Snyder and all coaches and staff who I have worked with over my time with the team.”

Generally speaking, working in-house for a client is regarded within the legal community as less stressful and demanding than working at a private law firm, where the competing interests of multiple clients, the pressure to generate revenue via billable hours with no reward for efficiency, and often vicious office politics make life a lot harder.  And so at first blush it will be reasonable to infer that, for whatever reason, the relationship between Donovan and the Redskins simply wasn’t working.

It’s also impossible not to wonder whether the move represents a shift by Snyder away from the aggressive pursuit of the team’s legal rights.  On Donovan’s watch, the team decided to sue season-ticket holders — and Snyder launched a highly unpopular lawsuit against the City Paper.  On that point, only time will tell.

Either way, the fact that so many people have been pushed out of their employment with fairly vanilla explanations being offered means there’s always a chance that there’s something intriguing lurking behind every fairly vanilla explanation that ever is offered when someone leaves a job.

Tweet Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on July 11, 2011, 2:45 PM EDT AP

Former Cardinals scout Dave Razzano made waves this weekend when he criticized his former employee in how they handled Kurt Warner’s retirement.

“Warner’s people told me he wanted to continue playing but decided to retire after being low-balled,” Razzano wrote.

Warner was due $11.5 million coming off a season where he led the Cardinals to a playoff victory before losing to the Saints.  The idea that the Cardinals didn’t do enough to entice Warner to return is hardly new.  Still, Warner took offense to the suggestion.

“2set record straight: I did NOT retire due 2 anything $$$ related!” Warner wrote. “I retired because I sacrificed enough for the game & didn’t want to do it anymore!”  (We’ve edited some words for clarity.)

There is room here for both statements to be true.  If Warner was primarily concerned about money, he would have played and/or pushed the issue.  He had many avenues to do so.  Instead, he retired in January.

With that said, the Cardinals may have had an opportunity to make Warner’s decision tougher if they had acted more aggressively before his final decision arrived.

(Hat hip to ESPN.com’s Mike Sando.)

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PFT: Owners, not quarrelling over a large part of the players

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Posted by Mike Florio on July 11, 2011, 6:49 PM EDT Getty Images
It’s now widely accepted that the last remaining major issue to be resolved between the league and the NFLPA* relates to the rookie wage scale, a formula for paying players taken at the top of the draft far less than they’ve been otherwise making.
The two sides really aren’t all that far apart.  Based on a summary of the situation that the NFLPA* recently provided to player reps, a copy of which we have obtained, three main points need to be ironed out.
First, the owners want first-round picks to be subject to a maximum of four-year contracts plus a team option for the fifth year.  For the first eight players in round one, the fifth-year pay would be 150 percent of the average salary of a starter at the player’s position, with a minimum of $6 million and a maximum of $12 million.  For the next eight players in round one, fifth-year salary would be 125 percent of the average starter, with a minimum of $5 million and a maximum of $10 million.  For the second half of round one, pay in the fifth year would be the average salary at the player’s position, with no minimum.
The players have proposed instead as to the first 16 rookies picked a fifth-year option salary based on the average pay for the 10 highest-paid players at the position, which essentially is the same formula used for the transition tag.  For the second half of round one, the players have proposed an option-year salary based on the average pay for the 20 highest-paid players at the position.
Next, the owners have proposed an overall dollar limit on rookie contracts of $840 million.  This would result in no additional money for players taken in rounds two through seven above minimum salaries (and, presumably, a slotted signing bonus).  The players, in contrast, have proposed a total dollar limit of $884 million, which would provide players taken in rounds two through seven a chance to negotiate salaries higher than the minimum salaries.
While the owners want to spend $44 million less per year on rookies, that’s $44 million that would go to veterans and retired players.
Finally, the league wants to impose penalties on rookies who hold out at some point during the term of their rookie contracts.  The players oppose this proposal.
The players’ financial proposal would result in savings of $157 million per year, and $1.099 billion over the expected 10-year term of the new CBA.
We’re told that, on Friday, the talks bogged down over the issue of how to pay the first eight picks.  Call us crazy, but it seems like the two sides are pretty close to a deal on that point.
It also seems like the league should accept the players’ offer.  Why shouldn’t a player taken in the top half of the draft who has played well enough in his first four years get top-1o money at his position if the team wants to keep him for a fifth year?
Again, the owners seem to be banking on the rest of the players eventually selling out the top eight draft picks.  And maybe in the end they will, especially since they’re really not fighting over all that much money.
Either way, if this is the only issue left, the two sides aren’t at the five yard line.  The ball is practically kissing the plane of the end zone, and both sides simply need to find a way to avoid pulling a DeSean Jackson.
Tweet Posted by Michael David Smith on July 12, 2011, 8:35 AM EDT Getty Images
Can Cam Newton start for the Carolina Panthers from Week One? He thinks he can — and he says that if he gets that chance, he’s not going to blow it.
“If the opportunity presents itself, whatever that opportunity is, I’m willing to take it,” Newton told the Charlotte Observer. “Simple and plain. And the last thing that I want or need is if that opportunity presents itself and I’m not ready and I’m not prepared for the opportunity. Because you only get one chance at greatness. If you pass on that, it very well could be no other time. Some people get two times, three times, even four. But you can’t be ticked off if that opportunity presents itself and you look yourself in the mirror and say, ‘I failed.’ Or ‘I wasn’t ready.’”
Newton says that if he’s not ready to go from Week One, he’s not going to blame the lockout.
“I had every single opportunity to be successful, working at it,” Newton said. “I got the playbook. And everybody’s in my situation. I would be somewhat disgruntled if every team in the NFL had minicamp and training camps and just the Carolina Panthers didn’t. But everybody is suffering from this.”
In other words, Newton is putting it out there right now: If he’s a bust, there’s no one to blame but Newton himself.
Tweet Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on July 12, 2011, 8:30 AM EDT AP
While the rest of the football world waits for the NFL and NFLPA* to get their act together, the Browns are playing football.
And since there isn’t a lot else going on in the football world this Tuesday, we thought we’d bring you some notes from the fourth “Camp Colt [McCoy], courtesy of Mary Kay-Cabot of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, who is on the scene in Austin, Texas.
1. About 30 players showed up for the sessions.  They are staying at a resort in Austin, while McCoy brings them around to his favorite barbecue places.  The first day compromised of a lot of classroom/tape work, then two hours of practice in 103 degree weather.
2. Rookies Phil Taylor and Owen Marecic met their teammates for the first time. Taylor worked out separately like most of the defense during the offseason, but this was a full-squad session.  Marecic was still in classes at Stanford.
3. Cornerback Sheldon Brown is coming off rotator cuff surgery and is limited in practice.  He says he’ll be ready when he needs to be.
4. This very well may be our last players-only practice report in a while. Perhaps a decade.  Let’s hope so.
Tweet Posted by Michael David Smith on July 12, 2011, 6:54 AM EDT Getty Images
The death of Pro Football Hall of Famer John Mackey, whose post-NFL life was a mess of health problems, has fellow Hall of Famer Gale Sayers feeling angry that the league and its players didn’t do more for Mackey.
Sayers told the Chicago Tribune that the NFL could have done more to help Mackey, who suffered from dementia and spent his final years in an assisted-living facility.
“You know, John Mackey died at 60-something [69],” Sayers said. “[The NFL] could have helped him more, I felt. But they didn’t, and the players could have helped more, and it didn’t happen.”
Although Sayers says he personally is doing fine and doesn’t need any assistance, he seems to be angry that the people making money in today’s NFL don’t show more appreciation for the people who built the league.
“There is no question that the game wouldn’t be a game if it wouldn’t have been for those people who played in the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s and ‘60s. The players today are on our shoulders. They think they made the game the way it is today. And they didn’t,” Sayers said. “The [pioneers of the game] played for $5,000 a year, or $10,000 or $15,000. They played for that much money so that these players got $10 million or $20 million a year. Today’s players think they did it by themselves. It’s unbelievable how they could think and feel that way.”
Tweet Posted by Mike Florio on July 11, 2011, 9:50 PM EDT Getty Images
As the NFL and the players attempt to iron out whatever wrinkles remain in the labor negotiations, the lawyers are expected to spend Tuesday dwelling on the details before the principals return to the room.
Both Albert Breer of NFL Network and Sal “45 Down” Paolantonio of ESPN reports that the owners and players, along with Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFLPA* executive director DeMaurice Smith, will be back on Wednesday.
Per Breer, the lawyers for the two sides met for roughly five hours on Monday, after caucusing privately.  They’ll get together again tomorrow.
Paolantonio says that mediator Arthur Boylan will monitor progress via e-mail, and that he’s available for “a short phone call or two” if necessary.
Though we respect Boylan’s ability to take his vacation, speaking from the perspective of a guy who’s currently on vacation, there’s plenty of time in the day to take a short phone call or two.
Tweet Posted by Michael David Smith on July 11, 2011, 8:20 PM EDT AP
Last month we noted that the mother of one of Terrell Owens‘ children was suing him for failing to pay child support. Now the woman’s lawyer says the situation has been handled.
Melanie Paige Smith, who has a child with Owens, filed court papers on June 20 in Atlanta, saying Owens refused to pay the full $5,000 a month he owes. But the Associated Press reports that her lawyer, Randall Kessler, has now filed court papers to dismiss the request that Owens be held in contempt, saying that Owens has made the payments.
There have been conflicting accounts of how many children Owens has. An episode of The T.O. Show featured two of his daughters meeting each other for the first time. Owens said in an interview last year that he has a three-year-old son whom he’s never met because of hard feelings between himself and the boy’s mother. It is not clear whether Smith is the mother of one of those children.
Tweet Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on July 11, 2011, 7:34 PM EDT Getty Images
One thing that’s easy to forget when considering Adam “Pacman” Jones’ recent troubles: The guy was no lock to make the Bengals roster anyway.
Jones is a nickel back coming off neck surgery.  Check that: two neck surgeries.  Evan Silva noticed this section from a Bengals.com article:
“Adam Jones indicated in a Channel 9 interview Sunday following his disputed arrest in a Cincinnati bar that he “just had” surgery on the neck he injured last season,” Geoff Hobson writes.
Jones also had neck surgery last October.  So unless he was referring to that one (while wearing a neck brace), it appears Jones has undergone two surgeries of late.
We’ve counted Pacman out too early before, but this combination of events could wind up marking his eighth and ninth life as an NFL player.
Tweet Posted by Mike Florio on July 11, 2011, 6:49 PM EDT Getty Images
It’s now widely accepted that the last remaining major issue to be resolved between the league and the NFLPA* relates to the rookie wage scale, a formula for paying players taken at the top of the draft far less than they’ve been otherwise making.
The two sides really aren’t all that far apart.  Based on a summary of the situation that the NFLPA* recently provided to player reps, a copy of which we have obtained, three main points need to be ironed out.
First, the owners want first-round picks to be subject to a maximum of four-year contracts plus a team option for the fifth year.  For the first eight players in round one, the fifth-year pay would be 150 percent of the average salary of a starter at the player’s position, with a minimum of $6 million and a maximum of $12 million.  For the next eight players in round one, fifth-year salary would be 125 percent of the average starter, with a minimum of $5 million and a maximum of $10 million.  For the second half of round one, pay in the fifth year would be the average salary at the player’s position, with no minimum.
The players have proposed instead as to the first 16 rookies picked a fifth-year option salary based on the average pay for the 10 highest-paid players at the position, which essentially is the same formula used for the transition tag.  For the second half of round one, the players have proposed an option-year salary based on the average pay for the 20 highest-paid players at the position.
Next, the owners have proposed an overall dollar limit on rookie contracts of $840 million.  This would result in no additional money for players taken in rounds two through seven above minimum salaries (and, presumably, a slotted signing bonus).  The players, in contrast, have proposed a total dollar limit of $884 million, which would provide players taken in rounds two through seven a chance to negotiate salaries higher than the minimum salaries.
While the owners want to spend $44 million less per year on rookies, that’s $44 million that would go to veterans and retired players.
Finally, the league wants to impose penalties on rookies who hold out at some point during the term of their rookie contracts.  The players oppose this proposal.
The players’ financial proposal would result in savings of $157 million per year, and $1.099 billion over the expected 10-year term of the new CBA.
We’re told that, on Friday, the talks bogged down over the issue of how to pay the first eight picks.  Call us crazy, but it seems like the two sides are pretty close to a deal on that point.
It also seems like the league should accept the players’ offer.  Why shouldn’t a player taken in the top half of the draft who has played well enough in his first four years get top-1o money at his position if the team wants to keep him for a fifth year?
Again, the owners seem to be banking on the rest of the players eventually selling out the top eight draft picks.  And maybe in the end they will, especially since they’re really not fighting over all that much money.
Either way, if this is the only issue left, the two sides aren’t at the five yard line.  The ball is practically kissing the plane of the end zone, and both sides simply need to find a way to avoid pulling a DeSean Jackson.
Tweet Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on July 11, 2011, 4:58 PM EDT
Not everyone is feeling optimistic about a labor deal being approved by July 21.
One nameless NFL player that spoke to Pete Prisco of CBSSports.com believes the owners are using the media to pressure players into a deal.
“All that is hype coming from the owners side to try and put pressure on us to do a deal. They want to make us look bad. It’s simply not true. There is a lot of work to be done. They are not close,” the player said. “Consider where that information is coming from, it’s the owners. Their reason is to try and create all this false hope to put more pressure on us.”
While we’d love to know if the player has direct knowledge of daily labor developments, his point is fair to consider. It wasn’t long ago we heard the end of June as a realistic target. Then July 4, then July 15, and now July 21.
The player says he’d be “shocked” if we had a deal in 10 days.
“Do it one-on-one like their predecessors used to do. When Gene Upshaw and Paul Tagliabue went into a room, they got it done. That’s what needs to happen now,” the player said. “The players in there are smart, but they don’t know how to close a deal. As for Goodell, he needs to drop his nuts. He needs to have the power to do a deal. It needs to be two guys in a room.”
Tweet Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on July 11, 2011, 4:08 PM EDT Getty Images
After one particularly big win during the Patriots’ run early last decade, Bill Belichick warned his players about the media love they were about to receive.
“They’re going to come in here and blow smoke up your ass,” Belichick said according to Michael Holley’s excellent document on the era Patriot Reign. “They’re going to give you b–w jobs, tell you how great you are, they’re going to pile it on thick.”
Belichick finished his talk, looked at his players, and noticed Mike Vrabel’s hand was in the air.
“Yeah, Mike,” Belichick said.
“What was that you were saying about b–w jobs?”
The team died laughing. By all accounts, that moment is Vrabel in a nutshell.  He was quick enough to make the joke, and knew he was respected enough by Belichick to pull it off. Vrabel had great instincts on the field and in the classroom; he knew Belichick got a kick out of him.
(As Tom Curran points out in a great piece on CSNNE.com, Vrabel was a world class smart ass.)
There were better Patriots during the team’s three-championship run, but perhaps no player other than Tom Brady embodied the era better. Vrabel was versatile, which Belichick prizes. The new Ohio State linebackers coach lined up at outside linebacker, inside linebacker, and famously at tight end. He could stop the run as well as he could cover.
He was known for his athleticism and leadership. He played with an edge, yet was perhaps defined by his intelligence. Holley wrote how coaches were continually surprised at the amazing recall Vrabel had of formations and tendencies of opponents.
“During his Patriots career, there was no player more respected for his football intellect and revered for his leadership by his teammates than Mike,” Belichick said in a statement Monday. “He was elected a team captain by his peers and is a player who I think everyone knew was destined to become a coach after his NFL playing career was over.
“Mike Vrabel is as well-suited for coaching as any player I have ever coached. He has a tremendous feel for people, players, coaches and what his team needs regardless of the situation. He is outstanding in his knowledge of the game, which contributed to his excellence as a player. I have no doubt Mike will develop tough, intelligent, fundamentally sound winners.”
Drafted by the Steelers, but barely used until he got to New England, Vrabel will ultimately be remembered as one of the catalysts to New England’s title run.
“He is a champion in every sense of the word and I’m confident all of these qualities will make him a great coach,” Chiefs G.M. Scott Pioli said Monday. “I cannot overstate my respect for him as a person and a football player. If there were a Hall of Champions, Mike Vrabel would be a first ballot selection. ”
Vrabel won’t make the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but that’s not the point.  Those Patriot teams weren’t about the stars.  Heck, Brady is the only surefire Hall of Fame player from the run. (Richard Seymour, Adam Vinatieri, Ty Law, and Rodney Harrison will have arguments.)
Vrabel stuck out, even on a team greater than the sum of its parts. On this day, he deserves a little smoke blown up his ass.
Tweet Posted by Mike Florio on July 11, 2011, 4:05 PM EDT AP
When word broke of Pacman Jones‘ latest arrest, we pointed out that, if he remains on probation for any of his past guilty pleas, he could be facing a separate problem.
Unfortunately for Pacman, he has not yet completed probation in Las Vegas due to charges arising from the NBA All-Star weekend rainmaking, which led to some gunshooting.
Per the Associated Press, Clark County District Attorney David Roger will review whether Pacman violated the terms of his probation.  Roger said that a decision to pursue, or not pursue, the matter may not come for “weeks.”
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Jones had served only five months of a one-year probation term.
Typically, an effort to prove the violation of a probation order entails a much lower legal standard than “proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”  And that would make it easier for Roger to put Pacman what New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg calls “the slammer.”
That’s why it was even more important for Pacman to constantly avoid any situation that could potentially lead to a claim that he jeopardized the probation order that kept him out of jail.  Early Sunday, he failed.  It remains to be seen whether that means, after more than 10 legal problems since joining the NFL, he’ll finally do time.
Tweet Posted by Mike Florio on July 11, 2011, 3:36 PM EDT
Whenever folks leave their jobs on terms characterized publicly as voluntary, it’s common if not routine to wonder whether it wasn’t voluntary at all.  Today’s candidate for game that should be known as “The Pursuit of Other Interests” is Redskins’ COO Dave Donovan.  The team has announced that Donovan is returning to the firm at which he practiced law before becoming a full-time employee of the Redskins.
Per our friends at CSNWashington.com, Donovan disclosed the decision during a Monday staff meeting.
“We want to thank Dave for his years of service with the Redskins,” owner Daniel Snyder said in a statement issued by the team.  “Even though he is returning to the law firm where he worked prior to joining the team, he will continue to consult with the Redskins as he did prior to joining the organization.  We look forward to continuing our relationship and wish him the best of luck in his new position.”
Said Donovan:  “I have had a great six years with the Redskins.  It has been an experience I will always appreciate and never forget. For personal reasons, I am returning to partnership in the law firm that I left in 2005.  I am thrilled that I will have the ability to continue my relationship with the Redskins.  I would like to thank Dan Snyder and all coaches and staff who I have worked with over my time with the team.”
Generally speaking, working in-house for a client is regarded within the legal community as less stressful and demanding than working at a private law firm, where the competing interests of multiple clients, the pressure to generate revenue via billable hours with no reward for efficiency, and often vicious office politics make life a lot harder.  And so at first blush it will be reasonable to infer that, for whatever reason, the relationship between Donovan and the Redskins simply wasn’t working.
It’s also impossible not to wonder whether the move represents a shift by Snyder away from the aggressive pursuit of the team’s legal rights.  On Donovan’s watch, the team decided to sue season-ticket holders — and Snyder launched a highly unpopular lawsuit against the City Paper.  On that point, only time will tell.
Either way, the fact that so many people have been pushed out of their employment with fairly vanilla explanations being offered means there’s always a chance that there’s something intriguing lurking behind every fairly vanilla explanation that ever is offered when someone leaves a job.
Tweet Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on July 11, 2011, 2:45 PM EDT AP
Former Cardinals scout Dave Razzano made waves this weekend when he criticized his former employee in how they handled Kurt Warner’s retirement.
“Warner’s people told me he wanted to continue playing but decided to retire after being low-balled,” Razzano wrote.
Warner was due $11.5 million coming off a season where he led the Cardinals to a playoff victory before losing to the Saints.  The idea that the Cardinals didn’t do enough to entice Warner to return is hardly new.  Still, Warner took offense to the suggestion.
“2set record straight: I did NOT retire due 2 anything $$$ related!” Warner wrote. “I retired because I sacrificed enough for the game & didn’t want to do it anymore!”  (We’ve edited some words for clarity.)
There is room here for both statements to be true.  If Warner was primarily concerned about money, he would have played and/or pushed the issue.  He had many avenues to do so.  Instead, he retired in January.
With that said, the Cardinals may have had an opportunity to make Warner’s decision tougher if they had acted more aggressively before his final decision arrived.
(Hat hip to ESPN.com’s Mike Sando.)
Tweet Posted by Mike Florio on July 11, 2011, 1:41 PM EDT Getty Images
By all accounts and appearances, the rookie wage scale remains the biggest issue that currently is preventing the NFL and the players from striking a deal.  The stalemate arises in part from the league’s insistence that teams should be permitted to sign first-round picks for up to five years, and from a proposed schedule at the top of the draft that would pay Panthers quarterback Cam Newton only $34 million over five years.  (We’ve actually heard the base deal will be as low as $25 million over five years.)
The league has dug in, in large part because the league surely believes that the players eventually will cave.  And it’s easy to argue that they should.  The ability to sign first-round picks for up to five years doesn’t mean that they all will sign five-year deals.  The same dynamic that has resulted in teams holding the first few picks grossly overpaying in the hopes of getting the players into camp will get those teams to agree to four-year contracts, if that’s what it takes to get the top picks signed.
But to the extent that a compromise is needed, here’s an idea that’s currently making the rounds.  For first-round picks, the contracts would have a three-year base term.  After the third season, the teams could then pick up an option for one more year, at a predetermined level of compensation based on performance.  Alternatively, teams could pick up two more years, at a much higher rate of pay.  (If the player has been a bust, the team can at that point simply walk away.)  The terms of the fourth-year and fifth-year options would be subject to negotiation, with hard ceilings on the most that could be paid.
Then again, why does there need to be a hard ceiling on what a player would be paid in years four and five?  If the first overall pick is on track for the Hall of Fame after three NFL seasons, why should his pay in years four and five be artificially restricted?
This gets back to a point we’ve been making for weeks.  The league seems to be crafting proposals that go beyond merely solving the problem of paying windfalls to players who ultimately do nothing to earn their money.  At some point before the first-round picks spend five years in the league, we’ll all know whether they deserve big money.  Thus, the league should not insist on locking those first-round picks up for five full years at a level of pay that doesn’t compensate great play.
In this regard, the league is banking on the possibility that the growing sense of inevitability will eventually prompt enough of the players to say, “Screw it.  It only affects a handful of players, none of whom are me.”  But if the league is truly concerned about a win-win deal that is fair to everyone over the long term, the league will uncross its arms and think of creative ways to prevent Cam Newton from becoming the next JaMarcus Russell without punishing Newton if he becomes the next Peyton Manning.
Until that happens, blame the league for the current state of the talks.
Tweet Posted by Michael David Smith on July 11, 2011, 1:31 PM EDT Getty Images
Add Eagles receiver DeSean Jackson to the list of people who think Philadelphia should be the landing place for Plaxico Burress.
“Plaxico Burress just came out to California, me and him just spent some time together and catching up,” Jackson told Stephen A. Smith on ESPN Radio in New York, via SportsRadioInterviews.com. “I think he would love to come play for the Eagles, come play with me and Vick. He already kind of had a connection with [Michael] Vick, with him being in prison and him kind of talking to him before. So it might be a connection, I’d love it. But regardless, I wish the best for him, and if he was to come to Philadelphia I think it would be a dangerous combination.”
Jackson said that he views Burress as being in a similar situation to the one Vick was in before the Eagles signed him, and in Jackson’s view, things couldn’t have gone any better with Vick.
“It was a dream come true,” Jackson said of playing with Vick. “I’ve always had so much respect for him. And for him going through what he’s been through and still be able to get a second opportunity and making the best out of it, first of all I’ll say for the Eagles to believe in him after all the other teams just doubted him and said he couldn’t do it, and for myself to actually watch and witness the every day hard work, the things he was doing in the community, for myself it was really like a dream come true.”
And now Jackson thinks playing with Burress could be another dream come true.
Note: Smith didn’t ask Jackson about the anti-gay slur he used in another recent radio interview. Smith’s interview with Jackson took place on Friday, after Jackson used the slur but before it was widely publicized.
Tweet Posted by Evan Silva on July 11, 2011, 1:30 PM EDT AP
Former University of Georgia running back Caleb King has decided to turn pro, joining former Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor as the lone players eligible for the 2011 supplemental draft.
King’s entry may have added action to a draft that typically generates little fanfare, but it won’t be met with much excitement in the NFL scouting community.
PFT has learned that King received a 1.60 grade from the popular NFL scouting service BLESTO. The 1.60 translates to a sixth-round grade.
PFT has also learned that King received a 4.9 grade from National Scouting, the most commonly used scouting service among NFL teams. A 4.9 equates to a priority undrafted free agent.
King was measured on campus as a junior and goes 5-foot-10 3/4 and 215 pounds, so he does have NFL-caliber size. National Scouting estimates that King runs a 4.6-flat forty time.
Keep in mind that these grades only reflect on-field performance. King had several off-field issues at Georgia, which could lower the grades even further after teams do their full evaluations.
Talented running backs that went undrafted in April like Darren Evans, Noel Devine, Graig Cooper, and John Clay could pose the biggest obstacle to King’s chances of being selected in the supplemental draft. Signing one of those backs would not cost NFL teams a future draft pick. Picking King will.
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PFT: Players, owners of return to the talks Wednesday

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Posted by Mike Florio on July 11, 2011, 9:50 PM EDT Getty Images

As the NFL and the players attempt to iron out whatever wrinkles remain in the labor negotiations, the lawyers are expected to spend Tuesday dwelling on the details before the principals return to the room.

Both Albert Breer of NFL Network and Sal “45 Down” Paolantonio of ESPN reports that the owners and players, along with Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFLPA* executive director DeMaurice Smith, will be back on Wednesday.

Per Breer, the lawyers for the two sides met for roughly five hours on Monday, after caucusing privately.  They’ll get together again tomorrow.

Paolantonio says that mediator Arthur Boylan will monitor progress via e-mail, and that he’s available for “a short phone call or two” if necessary.

Though we respect Boylan’s ability to take his vacation, speaking from the perspective of a guy who’s currently on vacation, there’s plenty of time in the day to take a short phone call or two.

Tweet Posted by Michael David Smith on July 12, 2011, 8:35 AM EDT Getty Images

Can Cam Newton start for the Carolina Panthers from Week One? He thinks he can — and he says that if he gets that chance, he’s not going to blow it.

“If the opportunity presents itself, whatever that opportunity is, I’m willing to take it,” Newton told the Charlotte Observer. “Simple and plain. And the last thing that I want or need is if that opportunity presents itself and I’m not ready and I’m not prepared for the opportunity. Because you only get one chance at greatness. If you pass on that, it very well could be no other time. Some people get two times, three times, even four. But you can’t be ticked off if that opportunity presents itself and you look yourself in the mirror and say, ‘I failed.’ Or ‘I wasn’t ready.’”

Newton says that if he’s not ready to go from Week One, he’s not going to blame the lockout.

“I had every single opportunity to be successful, working at it,” Newton said. “I got the playbook. And everybody’s in my situation. I would be somewhat disgruntled if every team in the NFL had minicamp and training camps and just the Carolina Panthers didn’t. But everybody is suffering from this.”

In other words, Newton is putting it out there right now: If he’s a bust, there’s no one to blame but Newton himself.

Tweet Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on July 12, 2011, 8:30 AM EDT AP

While the rest of the football world waits for the NFL and NFLPA* to get their act together, the Browns are playing football.

And since there isn’t a lot else going on in the football world this Tuesday, we thought we’d bring you some notes from the fourth “Camp Colt [McCoy], courtesy of Mary Kay-Cabot of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, who is on the scene in Austin, Texas.

1. About 30 players showed up for the sessions.  They are staying at a resort in Austin, while McCoy brings them around to his favorite barbecue places.  The first day compromised of a lot of classroom/tape work, then two hours of practice in 103 degree weather.

2. Rookies Phil Taylor and Owen Marecic met their teammates for the first time. Taylor worked out separately like most of the defense during the offseason, but this was a full-squad session.  Marecic was still in classes at Stanford.

3. Cornerback Sheldon Brown is coming off rotator cuff surgery and is limited in practice.  He says he’ll be ready when he needs to be.

4. This very well may be our last players-only practice report in a while. Perhaps a decade.  Let’s hope so.

Tweet Posted by Michael David Smith on July 12, 2011, 6:54 AM EDT Getty Images

The death of Pro Football Hall of Famer John Mackey, whose post-NFL life was a mess of health problems, has fellow Hall of Famer Gale Sayers feeling angry that the league and its players didn’t do more for Mackey.

Sayers told the Chicago Tribune that the NFL could have done more to help Mackey, who suffered from dementia and spent his final years in an assisted-living facility.

“You know, John Mackey died at 60-something [69],” Sayers said. “[The NFL] could have helped him more, I felt. But they didn’t, and the players could have helped more, and it didn’t happen.”

Although Sayers says he personally is doing fine and doesn’t need any assistance, he seems to be angry that the people making money in today’s NFL don’t show more appreciation for the people who built the league.

“There is no question that the game wouldn’t be a game if it wouldn’t have been for those people who played in the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s and ‘60s. The players today are on our shoulders. They think they made the game the way it is today. And they didn’t,” Sayers said. “The [pioneers of the game] played for $5,000 a year, or $10,000 or $15,000. They played for that much money so that these players got $10 million or $20 million a year. Today’s players think they did it by themselves. It’s unbelievable how they could think and feel that way.”

Tweet Posted by Michael David Smith on July 11, 2011, 8:20 PM EDT AP

Last month we noted that the mother of one of Terrell Owens‘ children was suing him for failing to pay child support. Now the woman’s lawyer says the situation has been handled.

Melanie Paige Smith, who has a child with Owens, filed court papers on June 20 in Atlanta, saying Owens refused to pay the full $5,000 a month he owes. But the Associated Press reports that her lawyer, Randall Kessler, has now filed court papers to dismiss the request that Owens be held in contempt, saying that Owens has made the payments.

There have been conflicting accounts of how many children Owens has. An episode of The T.O. Show featured two of his daughters meeting each other for the first time. Owens said in an interview last year that he has a three-year-old son whom he’s never met because of hard feelings between himself and the boy’s mother. It is not clear whether Smith is the mother of one of those children.

Tweet Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on July 11, 2011, 7:34 PM EDT Getty Images

One thing that’s easy to forget when considering Adam “Pacman” Jones’ recent troubles: The guy was no lock to make the Bengals roster anyway.

Jones is a nickel back coming off neck surgery.  Check that: two neck surgeries.  Evan Silva noticed this section from a Bengals.com article:

“Adam Jones indicated in a Channel 9 interview Sunday following his disputed arrest in a Cincinnati bar that he “just had” surgery on the neck he injured last season,” Geoff Hobson writes.

Jones also had neck surgery last October.  So unless he was referring to that one (while wearing a neck brace), it appears Jones has undergone two surgeries of late.

We’ve counted Pacman out too early before, but this combination of events could wind up marking his eighth and ninth life as an NFL player.

Tweet Posted by Mike Florio on July 11, 2011, 6:49 PM EDT Getty Images

It’s now widely accepted that the last remaining major issue to be resolved between the league and the NFLPA* relates to the rookie wage scale, a formula for paying players taken at the top of the draft far less than they’ve been otherwise making.

The two sides really aren’t all that far apart.  Based on a summary of the situation that the NFLPA* recently provided to player reps, a copy of which we have obtained, three main points need to be ironed out.

First, the owners want first-round picks to be subject to a maximum of four-year contracts plus a team option for the fifth year.  For the first eight players in round one, the fifth-year pay would be 150 percent of the average salary of a starter at the player’s position, with a minimum of $6 million and a maximum of $12 million.  For the next eight players in round one, fifth-year salary would be 125 percent of the average starter, with a minimum of $5 million and a maximum of $10 million.  For the second half of round one, pay in the fifth year would be the average salary at the player’s position, with no minimum.

The players have proposed instead as to the first 16 rookies picked a fifth-year option salary based on the average pay for the 10 highest-paid players at the position, which essentially is the same formula used for the transition tag.  For the second half of round one, the players have proposed an option-year salary based on the average pay for the 20 highest-paid players at the position.

Next, the owners have proposed an overall dollar limit on rookie contracts of $840 million.  This would result in no additional money for players taken in rounds two through seven above minimum salaries (and, presumably, a slotted signing bonus).  The players, in contrast, have proposed a total dollar limit of $884 million, which would provide players taken in rounds two through seven a chance to negotiate salaries higher than the minimum salaries.

While the owners want to spend $44 million less per year on rookies, that’s $44 million that would go to veterans and retired players.

Finally, the league wants to impose penalties on rookies who hold out at some point during the term of their rookie contracts.  The players oppose this proposal.

The players’ financial proposal would result in savings of $157 million per year, and $1.099 billion over the expected 10-year term of the new CBA.

We’re told that, on Friday, the talks bogged down over the issue of how to pay the first eight picks.  Call us crazy, but it seems like the two sides are pretty close to a deal on that point.

It also seems like the league should accept the players’ offer.  Why shouldn’t a player taken in the top half of the draft who has played well enough in his first four years get top-1o money at his position if the team wants to keep him for a fifth year?

Again, the owners seem to be banking on the rest of the players eventually selling out the top eight draft picks.  And maybe in the end they will, especially since they’re really not fighting over all that much money.

Either way, if this is the only issue left, the two sides aren’t at the five yard line.  The ball is practically kissing the plane of the end zone, and both sides simply need to find a way to avoid pulling a DeSean Jackson.

Tweet Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on July 11, 2011, 5:20 PM EDT

On Saturday, the lawyer for receiver Hines Ward said his client was not impaired when arrested for a DUI over the weekend.  The police report from the incident tells a different story.

Cops who pulled Ward over said he had bloodshot, glassy eyes, according to the Associated Press.  He failed a series of field sobriety tests, and was pulled over after Ward’s car hit a curb in Georgia.

We’re a little confused why Ward would so vehemently deny the charges when he knew he failed tests and the police report would inevitably come out.

Not owning up to the charges will only bring about more negative attention.

Tweet Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on July 11, 2011, 4:58 PM EDT

Not everyone is feeling optimistic about a labor deal being approved by July 21.

One nameless NFL player that spoke to Pete Prisco of CBSSports.com believes the owners are using the media to pressure players into a deal.

“All that is hype coming from the owners side to try and put pressure on us to do a deal. They want to make us look bad. It’s simply not true. There is a lot of work to be done. They are not close,” the player said. “Consider where that information is coming from, it’s the owners. Their reason is to try and create all this false hope to put more pressure on us.”

While we’d love to know if the player has direct knowledge of daily labor developments, his point is fair to consider. It wasn’t long ago we heard the end of June as a realistic target. Then July 4, then July 15, and now July 21.

The player says he’d be “shocked” if we had a deal in 10 days.

“Do it one-on-one like their predecessors used to do. When Gene Upshaw and Paul Tagliabue went into a room, they got it done. That’s what needs to happen now,” the player said. “The players in there are smart, but they don’t know how to close a deal. As for Goodell, he needs to drop his nuts. He needs to have the power to do a deal. It needs to be two guys in a room.”

Tweet Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on July 11, 2011, 4:08 PM EDT Getty Images

After one particularly big win during the Patriots’ run early last decade, Bill Belichick warned his players about the media love they were about to receive.

“They’re going to come in here and blow smoke up your ass,” Belichick said according to Michael Holley’s excellent document on the era Patriot Reign. “They’re going to give you b–w jobs, tell you how great you are, they’re going to pile it on thick.”

Belichick finished his talk, looked at his players, and noticed Mike Vrabel’s hand was in the air.

“Yeah, Mike,” Belichick said.

“What was that you were saying about b–w jobs?”

The team died laughing. By all accounts, that moment is Vrabel in a nutshell.  He was quick enough to make the joke, and knew he was respected enough by Belichick to pull it off. Vrabel had great instincts on the field and in the classroom; he knew Belichick got a kick out of him.

(As Tom Curran points out in a great piece on CSNNE.com, Vrabel was a world class smart ass.)

There were better Patriots during the team’s three-championship run, but perhaps no player other than Tom Brady embodied the era better. Vrabel was versatile, which Belichick prizes. The new Ohio State linebackers coach lined up at outside linebacker, inside linebacker, and famously at tight end. He could stop the run as well as he could cover.

He was known for his athleticism and leadership. He played with an edge, yet was perhaps defined by his intelligence. Holley wrote how coaches were continually surprised at the amazing recall Vrabel had of formations and tendencies of opponents.

“During his Patriots career, there was no player more respected for his football intellect and revered for his leadership by his teammates than Mike,” Belichick said in a statement Monday. “He was elected a team captain by his peers and is a player who I think everyone knew was destined to become a coach after his NFL playing career was over.

“Mike Vrabel is as well-suited for coaching as any player I have ever coached. He has a tremendous feel for people, players, coaches and what his team needs regardless of the situation. He is outstanding in his knowledge of the game, which contributed to his excellence as a player. I have no doubt Mike will develop tough, intelligent, fundamentally sound winners.”

Drafted by the Steelers, but barely used until he got to New England, Vrabel will ultimately be remembered as one of the catalysts to New England’s title run.

“He is a champion in every sense of the word and I’m confident all of these qualities will make him a great coach,” Chiefs G.M. Scott Pioli said Monday. “I cannot overstate my respect for him as a person and a football player. If there were a Hall of Champions, Mike Vrabel would be a first ballot selection. ”

Vrabel won’t make the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but that’s not the point.  Those Patriot teams weren’t about the stars.  Heck, Brady is the only surefire Hall of Fame player from the run. (Richard Seymour, Adam Vinatieri, Ty Law, and Rodney Harrison will have arguments.)

Vrabel stuck out, even on a team greater than the sum of its parts. On this day, he deserves a little smoke blown up his ass.

Tweet Posted by Mike Florio on July 11, 2011, 4:05 PM EDT AP

When word broke of Pacman Jones‘ latest arrest, we pointed out that, if he remains on probation for any of his past guilty pleas, he could be facing a separate problem.

Unfortunately for Pacman, he has not yet completed probation in Las Vegas due to charges arising from the NBA All-Star weekend rainmaking, which led to some gunshooting.

Per the Associated Press, Clark County District Attorney David Roger will review whether Pacman violated the terms of his probation.  Roger said that a decision to pursue, or not pursue, the matter may not come for “weeks.”

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Jones had served only five months of a one-year probation term.

Typically, an effort to prove the violation of a probation order entails a much lower legal standard than “proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”  And that would make it easier for Roger to put Pacman what New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg calls “the slammer.”

That’s why it was even more important for Pacman to constantly avoid any situation that could potentially lead to a claim that he jeopardized the probation order that kept him out of jail.  Early Sunday, he failed.  It remains to be seen whether that means, after more than 10 legal problems since joining the NFL, he’ll finally do time.

Tweet Posted by Mike Florio on July 11, 2011, 3:36 PM EDT

Whenever folks leave their jobs on terms characterized publicly as voluntary, it’s common if not routine to wonder whether it wasn’t voluntary at all.  Today’s candidate for game that should be known as “The Pursuit of Other Interests” is Redskins’ COO Dave Donovan.  The team has announced that Donovan is returning to the firm at which he practiced law before becoming a full-time employee of the Redskins.

Per our friends at CSNWashington.com, Donovan disclosed the decision during a Monday staff meeting.

“We want to thank Dave for his years of service with the Redskins,” owner Daniel Snyder said in a statement issued by the team.  “Even though he is returning to the law firm where he worked prior to joining the team, he will continue to consult with the Redskins as he did prior to joining the organization.  We look forward to continuing our relationship and wish him the best of luck in his new position.”

Said Donovan:  “I have had a great six years with the Redskins.  It has been an experience I will always appreciate and never forget. For personal reasons, I am returning to partnership in the law firm that I left in 2005.  I am thrilled that I will have the ability to continue my relationship with the Redskins.  I would like to thank Dan Snyder and all coaches and staff who I have worked with over my time with the team.”

Generally speaking, working in-house for a client is regarded within the legal community as less stressful and demanding than working at a private law firm, where the competing interests of multiple clients, the pressure to generate revenue via billable hours with no reward for efficiency, and often vicious office politics make life a lot harder.  And so at first blush it will be reasonable to infer that, for whatever reason, the relationship between Donovan and the Redskins simply wasn’t working.

It’s also impossible not to wonder whether the move represents a shift by Snyder away from the aggressive pursuit of the team’s legal rights.  On Donovan’s watch, the team decided to sue season-ticket holders — and Snyder launched a highly unpopular lawsuit against the City Paper.  On that point, only time will tell.

Either way, the fact that so many people have been pushed out of their employment with fairly vanilla explanations being offered means there’s always a chance that there’s something intriguing lurking behind every fairly vanilla explanation that ever is offered when someone leaves a job.

Tweet Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on July 11, 2011, 2:45 PM EDT AP

Former Cardinals scout Dave Razzano made waves this weekend when he criticized his former employee in how they handled Kurt Warner’s retirement.

“Warner’s people told me he wanted to continue playing but decided to retire after being low-balled,” Razzano wrote.

Warner was due $11.5 million coming off a season where he led the Cardinals to a playoff victory before losing to the Saints.  The idea that the Cardinals didn’t do enough to entice Warner to return is hardly new.  Still, Warner took offense to the suggestion.

“2set record straight: I did NOT retire due 2 anything $$$ related!” Warner wrote. “I retired because I sacrificed enough for the game & didn’t want to do it anymore!”  (We’ve edited some words for clarity.)

There is room here for both statements to be true.  If Warner was primarily concerned about money, he would have played and/or pushed the issue.  He had many avenues to do so.  Instead, he retired in January.

With that said, the Cardinals may have had an opportunity to make Warner’s decision tougher if they had acted more aggressively before his final decision arrived.

(Hat hip to ESPN.com’s Mike Sando.)

Tweet Posted by Mike Florio on July 11, 2011, 1:41 PM EDT Getty Images

By all accounts and appearances, the rookie wage scale remains the biggest issue that currently is preventing the NFL and the players from striking a deal.  The stalemate arises in part from the league’s insistence that teams should be permitted to sign first-round picks for up to five years, and from a proposed schedule at the top of the draft that would pay Panthers quarterback Cam Newton only $34 million over five years.  (We’ve actually heard the base deal will be as low as $25 million over five years.)

The league has dug in, in large part because the league surely believes that the players eventually will cave.  And it’s easy to argue that they should.  The ability to sign first-round picks for up to five years doesn’t mean that they all will sign five-year deals.  The same dynamic that has resulted in teams holding the first few picks grossly overpaying in the hopes of getting the players into camp will get those teams to agree to four-year contracts, if that’s what it takes to get the top picks signed.

But to the extent that a compromise is needed, here’s an idea that’s currently making the rounds.  For first-round picks, the contracts would have a three-year base term.  After the third season, the teams could then pick up an option for one more year, at a predetermined level of compensation based on performance.  Alternatively, teams could pick up two more years, at a much higher rate of pay.  (If the player has been a bust, the team can at that point simply walk away.)  The terms of the fourth-year and fifth-year options would be subject to negotiation, with hard ceilings on the most that could be paid.

Then again, why does there need to be a hard ceiling on what a player would be paid in years four and five?  If the first overall pick is on track for the Hall of Fame after three NFL seasons, why should his pay in years four and five be artificially restricted?

This gets back to a point we’ve been making for weeks.  The league seems to be crafting proposals that go beyond merely solving the problem of paying windfalls to players who ultimately do nothing to earn their money.  At some point before the first-round picks spend five years in the league, we’ll all know whether they deserve big money.  Thus, the league should not insist on locking those first-round picks up for five full years at a level of pay that doesn’t compensate great play.

In this regard, the league is banking on the possibility that the growing sense of inevitability will eventually prompt enough of the players to say, “Screw it.  It only affects a handful of players, none of whom are me.”  But if the league is truly concerned about a win-win deal that is fair to everyone over the long term, the league will uncross its arms and think of creative ways to prevent Cam Newton from becoming the next JaMarcus Russell without punishing Newton if he becomes the next Peyton Manning.

Until that happens, blame the league for the current state of the talks.

Tweet Posted by Michael David Smith on July 11, 2011, 1:31 PM EDT Getty Images

Add Eagles receiver DeSean Jackson to the list of people who think Philadelphia should be the landing place for Plaxico Burress.

“Plaxico Burress just came out to California, me and him just spent some time together and catching up,” Jackson told Stephen A. Smith on ESPN Radio in New York, via SportsRadioInterviews.com. “I think he would love to come play for the Eagles, come play with me and Vick. He already kind of had a connection with [Michael] Vick, with him being in prison and him kind of talking to him before. So it might be a connection, I’d love it. But regardless, I wish the best for him, and if he was to come to Philadelphia I think it would be a dangerous combination.”

Jackson said that he views Burress as being in a similar situation to the one Vick was in before the Eagles signed him, and in Jackson’s view, things couldn’t have gone any better with Vick.

“It was a dream come true,” Jackson said of playing with Vick. “I’ve always had so much respect for him. And for him going through what he’s been through and still be able to get a second opportunity and making the best out of it, first of all I’ll say for the Eagles to believe in him after all the other teams just doubted him and said he couldn’t do it, and for myself to actually watch and witness the every day hard work, the things he was doing in the community, for myself it was really like a dream come true.”

And now Jackson thinks playing with Burress could be another dream come true.

Note: Smith didn’t ask Jackson about the anti-gay slur he used in another recent radio interview. Smith’s interview with Jackson took place on Friday, after Jackson used the slur but before it was widely publicized.

Tweet Posted by Evan Silva on July 11, 2011, 1:30 PM EDT AP

Former University of Georgia running back Caleb King has decided to turn pro, joining former Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor as the lone players eligible for the 2011 supplemental draft.

King’s entry may have added action to a draft that typically generates little fanfare, but it won’t be met with much excitement in the NFL scouting community.

PFT has learned that King received a 1.60 grade from the popular NFL scouting service BLESTO. The 1.60 translates to a sixth-round grade.

PFT has also learned that King received a 4.9 grade from National Scouting, the most commonly used scouting service among NFL teams. A 4.9 equates to a priority undrafted free agent.

King was measured on campus as a junior and goes 5-foot-10 3/4 and 215 pounds, so he does have NFL-caliber size. National Scouting estimates that King runs a 4.6-flat forty time.

Keep in mind that these grades only reflect on-field performance. King had several off-field issues at Georgia, which could lower the grades even further after teams do their full evaluations.

Talented running backs that went undrafted in April like Darren Evans, Noel Devine, Graig Cooper, and John Clay could pose the biggest obstacle to King’s chances of being selected in the supplemental draft. Signing one of those backs would not cost NFL teams a future draft pick. Picking King will.

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