A Look At The QBs Who Could Be Available

Once the NFL season starts again there will be several teams looking for a starting Quarterback. Here is a look at some of the best QBs who will and could be available.

Those Who Are Available

Vince Young: Someone will take Vince Young along with his soft work ethic and fragile ego. He has talent and knows how to play. At this point he would make a decent backup as you would not want him to be the main guy on your team.

Alex Smith: Truly a good-but-not-great QB. He has suffered in a bad situation in San Fransisco who seem to change offensive coordinators every few months or so. He could work out well for a team that can offer him some stability.

Matt Hasselbeck:  Hard to believe Seattle wants to get rid of him. Though, he is old and injury prone, not a good combination. Could be a dangerous pick-up as it would probably not take much for Hasselbeck to miss a lot of time.

Could Be Available

Carson Palmer: In my estimation probably the best QB a team could pick up. A lot of people will mention Kyle Orton or Kevin Kolb, but they do not have the talent or track record Palmer has. It is true that his performance has not been the best lately. Though, he has been playing for the Bengals so I am giving him the benefit of the doubt.

Kevin Kolb: A guy the Eagles should not want to get rid of. With the way Mike Vick plays it is almost inevitable he will get hurt. So you will want to have a good backup on the roster. Also, how much longer will Vick be there. He only signed a one year deal. Do not be shocked if the Eagles elect to hold onto Kolb.

Kyle Orton: Much Like Kolb, do not be shocked if the Broncos decide to hold onto him. From the outside looking in it would seem obvious they would try and move him. Orton is coming up on the final year of his deal and they have Tim Tebow waiting. It would have to be a sweet deal to get Denver to part with Orton though. Tebow is probably not ready to take over. Plus, the current management, which changed since last season, are not the ones who took Tebow. So they will not feel the need to try and force the issue with him.

Cuts Show Real Greed of NFL Owners

Earlier this week SI.com reported that seven teams have made some sort of cuts to employee salaries as a result of the NFL lockout. Now, only the NFL players are locked out. Coaches, front office staff, maintenance staff, etc. are all still working. With the exception of head coaches, and high ranking executives like General Managers and VPs, NFL team staff do not make the kind of money the players do. They are far from rich. They are regular working people with mortgages and bills to pay.

Ralph Wilson Jr. -- One of the seven owners to cut employee salaries

At least seven of the 32 NFL teams have cut the salaries of their support staff using the lockout as an excuse. Those teams are Miami, the New York Jets, Kansas City, Detroit, Tampa Bay and Arizona. Some teams though have refused to make any cuts. Some facts to consider:

• The lockout was imposed by the owners so they can try and pay players less and now they are using it as an excuse to pay other employees less
• No games have been missed yet which means no major revenue generators have been missed. The biggest revenue generator of the off season, the NFL Draft, still went on
• Even before the lockout which the owners imposed all NFL teams were extremely profitable

So we know the lockout was an excuse for cutting salary. The actual reason for the cuts is that the owners can. If they give them an excuse to grab some extra money they will. Not all of them do it, but some do.

Stay Classy Vancouver

Unless you have been living under a rock you know what I am talking about in my title. The story of the Vancouver riots has made news all over the world. In case you have been under a rock you can read this link to catch up:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/michael_rosenberg/06/16/sports.rioting/index.html?sct=nhl_t12_a1

What makes the riots so shocking is the reason for them. When I was a kid Los Angeles rioted over the verdict in the first Rodney King trial. Years of  of pent-up frustration with police racism and brutality exploded on the streets. Over the last few months there have been riots in various totalitarian countries for freedom. Vancouver though, rioted because their hockey team lost the championship game. Not just any riot either. A riot that would impress the most hard-core soccer hooligan.


What were they thinking?

We live in an age where there are eyes everywhere. Not just eyes, recording devices also. Even though Canada does not have CCTV everywhere like many European there are still recording devices everywhere. Now, a large percentage of our population have camera phones they carry with them everywhere. Do they think no one will notice when they walk up to a car and set it on fire? Do they think the judge will believe them when they say they felt bad about it, or did not mean to do it, after watching a video of them pumping their arm's in the air with pride.

Last summer there were some people who engaged in violence and vandalism during the protests of the G20 summit in Toronto. The Toronto Police were able to identify many of the guilty people by publishing pictures on their website and in every Toronto media outlet. Expect the Vancouver Police to do the same as it was very successful in Toronto. And we can expect the non-rioting citizens of Vancouver to be very helpful with the police bring to justice the fools who destroyed and embarrassed their beautiful city.

Overshadowed by all this mess in Vancouver is the story of the Boston Bruins. A proud 'Original Six' team who had not won the Stanley Cup in over 30 years. No, Vancouver managed to grab the headlines.

"There Is Nothing Pleasent About Prison"

The title is a quote from Plaxico Burress upon his release from prison. Plaxico, one time a marginal star in the NFL, entered prison on a gun charge almost two years ago. He the charge came from a night when he accidentally shot himself in the leg when the pistol in his pocket went off. He claimed it kinda just went off on its own. Oh, and he was drunk and at a night club too. As anyone who has handled a gun would know, they do not just go off. They do not go off from moving around in your pocket and they do not go off when you drop them. It takes a bit of force to pull back on that trigger to cause the gun to shoot. Either way, since he was drunk and the gun was unlicensed (you wonder why a millionaire could not bother to get his gun licensed) he was given a nice term in jail to think about what he had done.

So, who will want him now? Well, I think the Giants are done with him. The Jets will probably be interested with Braylon Edwards being an expensive free agent right now. Rex Ryan has not trouble having criminals on his team. He did not care when Edwards was arrested last year. Hey, other team have the same philosophy. Why, the Cincinnati Bengals have signed criminals to their roster for years. Another possible destination is Philadelphia with the thought the reformed Mike Vick would be a good influence on him.

Whoever he ends up it is sad that someone with so much talent wasted two years of his life over something so stupid.

Stanley Cup - Olympics Connection

I am going to deviate from Football a little bit to talk about some Hockey. For those unaware, the National Hockey League championship is being played right now between Boston and Vancouver. The championship trophy is the Stanley Cup. Currently Vancouver is up three games to two in the series. With one more victory they will clinch the cup and continue an interesting trend involving Canadian cities that host Olympic games.

in 1976 Montreal hosted the Summer Olympics, the first ever Olympics to be held in Canada. In 1977 the Montreal Canadiens of the NHL won the Stanley Cup. In 1988 Calgary hosted the Winter Olympics and in 1989 the Calgary Flames won the Stanley Cup. The 2010 Winter Olympics were held in Vancouver and now Vancouver is in position to win the 2011Stanley Cup. . . . . Very interesting.

NFL Sending Mixed Messages With Lockout

This post is a bit of a continuation of where my last post ended. . . .

The NFL has become a league that is punishing players for misbehavior. Coaches and teams like to babysit players through the off season to try and make sure they stay out of trouble. Stiff punishments are given to players who run afoul of the law. Also, along with testing for performance enhancing drugs (like steroids) the NFL tests for illegal recreational drugs.

This off season though the NFL has locked its players out and cut off all contact from them. Which means they are not doing any kind of drug testing. Every NFL player could have spent the last three months shooting roids and snorting rails without the fear of being caught by a drug test. And every NFL player knows it.

Lockout Will Be a Career Changer For Many NFL Players

Every NFL season we see it. There are good players who fall off the face of the Earth. Conversely there are guys we have never heard of who become stars, or at least strong players. We can expect even more of these trends whenever the next NFL season starts.


NFL players are babysat though the off season by their control-freak coaches to make sure stay in shape and keep their skills sharp. Most players have the drive an dedication to do these things on their own. A small minority do not. Also, some players are easily distracted. Young players in particular can have a hard time adjusting to the amount of free time afforded them during and NFL off season. So NFL teams have an assortment of mini-camps, OTAs and training programs for players. Some are mandatory for all players to attend. Most of these programs are "voluntary" and most players drink the kool-aid and attend. Pretending it is something other than their control-freak coaches keeping an eye on them.

This NFL has forbid teams, including coaching and training staff, from having any contact with players. Which means players have had to babysit themselves. For most players this is the longest they have gone without a football coach crawling up their butt. Some players will not react well.

I will use my favorite team as an example. Like most teams the Titans players have been holding their own workouts and mini-camps. This week they had a big one with 40 players. Corner back Cortland Finnegan III has been organizing these workouts. It says a lot about Cortland, that he is organizing these workouts. Most key players and draft picks showed up this week. Even the team's biggest star, Chris Johnson, showed after skipping the workouts last off season in a contract dispute.

Conspicuous by his absence was another bring young player, Kenny Britt. Kenny had a hard time staying on track last off season even with coaches allowed to stay on him. So it is concerning that he did not show this week, even though he was expected to be there. No one had heard from him.  It turns out that instead of joining his teammate for a workout this week Kenny Britt was smokin' blunts in New Jersey. You can find an atricle on his arrest, second this off season, here: http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110609/SPORTS01/110609017/Titans-receiver-Kenny-Britt-arrested-New-Jersey?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Sports Tennessee Titans

Kenny Britt appears to be an example of a player who is easily distracted. He works hard and is dedicated when with the team. When he is back with old friends in New Jersey though he falls into bad habits. It will be interesting to see how Kenny Britt does when the next NFL season finally starts.

At the same time, there is always someone there willing to take the spot of a star who is not willing to work hard. The Titans had two rookies receivers last year. Both of whom show a lot of potential. One actually made it to the Pro-Bowl as a return man. And I am sure both would love to step in and replace Kenny Britt in the starting lineup should Britt show he is not up to the task.