What’s The 401?!?!

First & Goal - NFL Update

In our quest to eliminate single posts about every topic we bring you the first installment of “First & Goal”, a weekly update of the happenings in the NFL.  Considering that once the season starts the biggest day for the NFL will obviously be Sunday, this feature is slated to run every Monday. 

Our first edition of “First & Goal” kicks off with an update on the never ending Spygate saga.  While there’s been nary a peep from our favorite Senator, Arlen Specter, this week, others have replaced his voice in the madness.  Of course, it was only a matter of time before Joey Porter spoke up.  The talkative linebacker thinks there should be an “asterisk” next to the Patriots Super Bowl wins.  It’s no surprise that a former Pittsburgh Steeler would be bitter, but a former Pat?  That’s a little different.  Ross Tucker, who played for the Patriots in 2005, played NFL whistle blower this week when he stated that he believed the Pats used players who were on IR in practices.  If true, this would be yet another violation of NFL rules.  It sounds to me like Tucker is trying to make a name for himself as a journalist by throwing one of his former teams under the bus.  Also, take a look at this guy in the video from ESPN.com and ask yourself if Tucker was a ’squeaky clean’ athlete when he played.  He does make a good point though.  Why take the risk of putting players on IR on the practice field when there’s really minimal benefit to it? 

Moving away from Spygate, which has been beaten to death in the media, the NFL owners opted out of the collective-bargaining agreement with the Players’ Association this week.  While this has no immediate impact on the future of the NFL, (the earliest there would be a labor stoppage is 2011) if the league and its players can’t come to an agreement over the next three years a lockout is likely.  My gut tells me that the two sides will find a way to work this thing out, but the owners had better be careful.  The hardest thing to do in any labor situation is take back something once you’ve given it up.  I’d say there’s a 10% chance that we could see some kind of work stoppage in 2011.  The longer the two sides go without an agreement, the more likely a lockout is. 

Of course, the spector of a looming lockout isn’t deterring teams from dishing out large contracts.  The Dallas Cowboys locked up two key players this week in Terrence Newman, who inked a six year extension worth $50.2 million with $22.5 of it being guaranteed, and Marion Barber, who locked up a seven year extension worth $45 million with $16 million of it being guaranteed.  If there’s one thing that remains constant in the NFL, it’s that Jerry Jones likes to sign big checks.  Jones may be signing another one relatively soon with T.O. heading into the final year of his contract.  Another owner who’ll be signing over some big checks in the coming years is Atlanta Falcons head man Arthur Blank.  The Falcons signed first round pick Matt Ryan, who was taken third overall, to the largest rookie contract in the history of the NFL.  Ryan will be paid $72 million over six years.  $34.75 million of that money is guaranteed.  After hearing of the deal, Tennessee Titans center Kevin Mawae stated that rookie contracts are getting out of hand.  I agree with Mawae.  Matt Ryan has never stepped on an NFL football field, and he’s going to get a contract nearly as large as Tom Brady, who’s won three Super Bowls?  It makes no sense.  Force the guy to prove himself before you just dump tens of millions of dollars in his lap.  Considering that this draft was considered to be relatively weak, it’s amazing that the first quarterback taken would get a record deal. 

On the flip side you have the saga of Green Bay Packers’ running back Ryan Grant, who would like a long-term deal after his break-out season, but probably won’t get it.  Grant could always go the route of Bengals’ wide receivers Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadah and not show up for camp.  Or he could do what Kellen Winslow is doing to the upstart Browns and go completely AWOL.  Even better, Grant could completely destroy his relationship with the team by pulling a Jason Taylor and going on Dancing With The Stars and not showing up for any camps.

Of course, not showing up for voluntary workouts is nothing compared to being charged with involuntary manslaughter, as New Orleans Saints defensive end Charles Grant was this week.  Details of this case are sketchy right now, but seeing that Grant was stabbed in the neck during this altercation, I’d say he probably gets off.  The NFL won’t be taking news of this nature lightly though, as Roger Goodell has decided to fine teams for player misbehavior.  This is a wise move, and will make teams think twice about taking chances on players with sketchy pasts.  The players won’t have to worry about the length of their hair anymore, as the NFL has decided not to impose fines on players who wear long hair.  However, it appears that stiff arms to the face have been outlawed in what is being known around the league as the ‘Marion Barber rule.  This is another stupid rule on the NFL’s part.  Stiff arms have been around forever, and are part of the game.  Now you’re going to have defensive players sticking their heads into the stiff arms intentionally to get the penalties….dumb shit here.

It appears that Goodell is also investigating ways to keep the NFL clean as the league met with noted steroids distributor David Jacobs this week to discuss loopholes in the testing program as well as gather information on players that may have used.  I don’t expect any names to come out of this, but the NFL would be wise to nip whatever steroid use is going on in the butt before Congress gets a hold of it.

In injury news, Texans star wide receiver Andre Johnson had his knee scoped two Thursdays ago, but reportedly will be back by the start of training camp.  Johnson is the main cog in the Texans offense so this bears watching over the course of the season.  Injuries recently forced linebacker Dan Morgan to retire.  Lack of fun almost forced Vince Young into retirement one year into the league.

One last bit of Patriots news.  Reports are that Chad Jackson has looked sharp in Passing Camp.  This is good news for the Pats who lost Donte Stallworth to free agency in the off-season.  The Patroits have been waiting for Jackson to blossom for some time now. 

Finally, with reports that airing the Super Bowl has an incredibly powerful residual effect on a TV Network (which promises to continue to drive up the price of the Big Game), the NFL has announced the Super Bowl will be held in Indianapolis in 2010.  This is perposterous.  Indianapolis?  This is a worse choice than Detroit was a few years ago.  By all accounts, there is absolutely nothing to do in Indy, and it’s cold there in the winter.  If the NFL wants to choose a cold weather site for it’s big game go with Chicago or New York.  At least there’s stuff to do there, and these are cities with character and appeal.  Apparantly, the choices were between Indy, Houston and Arizona.  Not for nothing, but my vote would have been for the desert. 

Anyway, you can probably expect a nice article from Bill Simmons about how awful the choice of Indianapolis is at some point in the next three years.