Over the past several years we have had preseason games in Europe. The
NFL was trying to get the Europeans more interested in American
Football versus the European “futbol” known better to us as soccer. A
league was formed called the NFLE (National Football League Europe),
and it was mainly used as a minor league to develop players who were
not yet up to speed to play in the NFL here in the States.

When it was first formed, the commissioner was Paul Tagliabue who was
pushing heavily for the development of the new European league. He had
convinced the NFL owners to fork over one million per team to support
this offshore league. When Roger Goodell took over as commissioner, he
wasn’t as keen on this idea, so the league folded. But, this weekend
we have a regular season game scheduled in London.

Okay, here’s my point. The retired players pension and disability
benefits. Can you imagine the new influx of revenue that will be
coming to the NFL from the international television rights? It’s going
to be staggering. Will the owners still balk at putting more money
into the retired players’ fund to help bring the NFL benefits up to par
with the other professional sports? That’s the question! As they get
richer, will they remember the players that helped build the NFL so
that it could grow into the international sport it has become? We
shall wait and see.

Let’s Talk Sports!

What’s up with these rookie idiots for the NBA?  Miami Heat rookie,
Michael Beasley was fined $50 grand for breaking a rule.  And, that
rule is no women in your hotel room during the rookie symposium.  Also
fined $20 grand were rookies Mario Chalmers and Memphis’ Darrell
Arthur.  Oh yeah, they were doing the same thing.  Come on, guys,
what’s your problem?  Are your needs that bad?  Again, I think it’s too
much money too soon.  What’s a $20 grand fine to chumps making millions
right from the start.  They forget which head to think with.
Suspending them with no pay is what is needed to help other young
millionaire athletes have a chance to mature - let their brains catch
up with their bank accounts.

Great news that boxer Oscar Diaz has awakened from his coma.  He was
carried from the ring over two months ago after being knocked out by
Delvin Rodriguez.  Even better news is that the doctors are optimistic
there will be a full recovery.  Oscar may have been carried from the
ring, but after two months, he has apparently won his biggest battle.

Well, the Raiders finally found a team they can beat - the Chiefs.  I
don’t know which team to root for since I played several years for
both.  Okay, the Raiders suck, the Chiefs are just bad.  But think
about it - how can the Raider players play well when they know20there
could be a coaching change in the middle of the game.  Al Davis has the
potential to do things like that - and believe me, it’s only a matter
of time.  That young coach had better keep his bags packed.

Did you see that call the ref made in the Denver game?  Dude, that was
really bad.  Even your girlfriend who doesn’t understand football could
have made a better call.  It was a fumble.  Forget about it, no
discussion needed, it was a fumble.  The ref later apologized to the
Charger coach, saying he blew it.  Okay, kool, blow this you chump (and
I’m talking about Coach Norv Turner’s finger).  And with this gift of
new life, the Broncos went on to win the game by two points.

Now, I say if you have an injury that doesn’t allow you to function
properly, it’s okay to say you can’t play.  L.T., the prize halfback
for the Chargers, has a hurt big toe.  Big toe? What’s with that?  So
far he’s missed the exhibition season and two season games. Now he may
not play this Sunday against the Jets.  Wrap the dang thing up.  Stick
a needle in it full of no-hurt juice and get out there, the Chargers
need you, Dude.

And finally, what about O.J…. is he still part of the sports world?
Well, just in case he is, it’s time for O.J. news, once again.  As most
of you know, he’s back in court, in
Las Vegas, trying to stay out of
jail.  He has a slew of charges that could get him a lot of jail time
if convicted. My bet?  He will walk.  This time the witnesses against
him have even less smarts than him.  It’s happening as you read this,
so let’s see how it plays out.

Okay, I’ll stop here, but you can bet there’s more coming.

A Good Friend of the NFL is Gone.

Gene Upshaw, the NFL Players Association union leader, passed away only
days after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Gene’s entire life was dedicated to the NFL. First, his entire 15-year
playing career was spent as an Oakland Raider, where he played in two
Super Bowls and seven Pro Bowls. He went on to spend more than 25 years
as head of the players union.

He tenure as union leader was not without criticism. He was once
quoted as saying, “Why should I help the retired players, they don’t
pay my salary, the active players do that.” And the salary he was
talking about was close to $3 mil per year.

Upshaw made great strides for the active players, getting them the free
agency deal and the salary cap. But what was always lagging behind was
improved benefits for the retired players, ie. pension benefits along
with benefits for the disabled. As an NFL retired player, I’m more
aware of the improvements needed to help a great number of retired and
disabled players. Until just this year, you had to be blind, crippled
and confined to a bed or wheelchair to get disability benefits from the
NFL. Players would plead their cases, stating that Social Security
recognized them as being disabled and so should the NFL. But the union
would not budge and went so far as to say that even if Social Security
accepted your disability claims, they would not.

Finally this year a “Plan B” was adopted which reversed those rulings.
If Social Security was paying you disability benefits, it then became
automatic for the NFL to do the same. To the many disabled former
players out there this was great, albeit late, news.

NFL players have a unique camaraderie and we are saddened and shocked
by the sudden death of one of our own. My sincere condolences go out
to his wife, Terri, and their three sons.

Hey, finally, football is in the air. Soon, the weather will change
too. Then we’ll be able to once again say “It’s football weather.”
Translated that usually means cool, crisp and sometimes damp.

I’m tired of baseball. The sports news on TV spends the whole newscast
trying to give an update on the 50 games played yesterday. Enough!
It’s overkill. That’s probably one reason I don’t like baseball - too
many games and too much information. Each baseball team plays over 100
games and then the newscasters try to give us an update on each team,
every day - wow - see what I mean.

The NFL teams combined barely play over 100 games in an entire
season. That gives us an opportunity to take it all in. We can spend
all week thinking about each game, talking the stats and absorbing all
the information about each team.

One thing I haven’t quite gotten used to is the Monday Night Football
change over. It’s different now, and I don’t mean that in a positive
way. ABC did a great job for over 25 years on Monday nights. It’s not
just the announcers, altho’ they’re tops. It was the way they shot the
games. The close-ups were excellent. They always seemed to be in the
right place at the right time.

In all areas they made better usage of the cameras than ESPN does now.
ESPN uses too many overhead wide shots. Very uncreative. The whole
atmosphere of Monday night has changed - but it’s better than Monday
thru Sunday baseball! Thursday night games — don’t like them either.
They’re midweek, not the same as Monday when you need that jump-start
for the week.

The sounds, the grunts, the thuds, the cheers are all almost back.
Can’t wait!

The NFL is in meetings concerning the rules and regulations of the
upcoming season. I have a couple of ideas that I think they should
seriously consider:

First, I’m a former Marine, did my duty, served my country, love the
flag and certainly will fight for what it stands for. Now, having said
that, let me relate my unyielding patriotism to this country and talk
about some football.

Before a game, the locker room is full of anxious
players ready to do battle, and after hearing a “Knute Rockne” speech
by an inspirational coach, they run outside ready to take on the enemy.
Then suddenly we stop, gear ourselves down a notch, and sing the Star
Spangled Banner. I’m most definitely okay with the anthem, but wonder
why it needs to be played at this time? Why not play it after the
players are finished warming up? It’s damn hard to regain that high
energy you had when you first ran onto the field from the locker room.

Second, football is supposed to be a contact sport. The 5-yard contact
rule should be extended to 10 yards. The rule says you can’t bump or
touch a receiver after he goes past 5 yards, but I say make it 10 yards
and give the pass defender an even chance. When I played, you could
bump the receiver all over the field prior to the ball being thrown.
Once the ball was in the air, you couldn’t touch him. There was an
even chance between the receiver and the defender. This no-bump rule
strongly favors the receiver, so 10 yards makes it more interesting.

The NFL commissioner received 8 more video tapes from Patriot’s former employee, Mat Walsh. These tapes (allegedly) show that the Pats were taping signals from other teams. So? What good are they?

At games, and pre-game practices, there are signals being flashed all over the place. As you look across the field at the opposing team giving signals to their team on the field, how do you know who is flashing the fake signals and who’s sending the signals that are real. Most importantly, even if you know which signal is real, how fast can you signal your own team that same signal? No way there is enough time to figure out the signal being sent, then get that info to your own team, then have them ruin the opposing team’s play or defense. Are you kidding?

Teams have been doing this for years and years. No big deal. Usually they spied to see if the team you were playing showed any new offensive formations - something you hadn’t seen before - so you could prepare your defense for them.

Now, about this jerk Matt Walsh, what the heck was his motivation to spill the beans in the first place. And, once the commissioner fined the Patriot’s, why couldn’t this bozo just let it alone? This is all a big to-do about nothing.

I remember when I was playing, we used to be given information on opposing teams, then we’d practice their new defensive formations, right down to some of our players wearing the opposing players jersey numbers, especially the numbers of the running backs or receivers. We never asked how they got the information, we just used it. We’ve been there, done that. We weren’t the first - and the Patriots won’t be the last. So forget it!

I think the NFL draft is a total waste of TV time and a big waste of the NFL owners’ money. High draft pick means big time salary and bonus. The size of the salary is no indication that the player will be a high class player or make any contributions to the team. What happens to all the Heisman winners?

Most of them usually take the big money and ride off into the sunset. If a player is not drafted he is called a “free agent” which means he is free to try out with any team of his choice. Obviously, he is going to pick a team that needs a player in his position. If you are a wide receiver you don’t want to go to a team that already has 5 wide receivers, you pick a team that needs you.

The undrafted free agent had a lot of successful players on the FNL roster, i.e. Warren Moon, Antonio Gates, Kurt Warner, Priest Holmes, to name a few.

There should be invitations sent to the players offering them a chance to try out for their team. You would get better players that are fighting hard to make the team, not the Numer 1 or Number 5 draft pick who knows he has the team made.

It was pretty much like that in the “old days” — still the best days. Even gas was cheaper.

Have you noticed how many sports are being dominated by people whose names you can’t pronounce?Let’s take boxing first. Gone are the days of Jones and Louis - welcome to Klitscko and Ibramovich. Forget about tennis - Ivanovic, Hantuchova, Sparapova… Whoa! Not that easy to be a sportscaster anymore.I’ll stick to the easy names like Brady, Owens, Manning. Yup, just another reason to be a football fan. So, what’s the deal with all these foreign names in the American sports world? My take? It’s about desire, my friend, their desire to win is bigger than most of the Americans. They have a huge desire to win, and when they can win in America they’ve won the world. Their desire drives them to work harder. It’s that simple.Many years ago professional boxing matches were 20 rounds long. Do you think any fighter today can go 20 rounds? Maybe some of the foreign fighters - but not the Americans. Mexican fighters can probably go 30 rounds. Why? Hard work, yes, and great work ethics. The are committed to the win. American heavyweights have become a joke. They can’t go more than 5 rounds without their tongues hanging down to their belly buttons.We like the glamour, the flash, the cash. But the hard work and sweat aren’t quite as attractive. As Americans, we usually try to get by on natural talent. Natural talent is essential, but it only gets you by for a short time. When the game gets into the long haul, then we see the big fade which usually leads to the big defeat.As Americans, we haven’t lost the will to win - but because in general our lives are easier, we’ve mostly lost the will to work hard to get the win. Nobody said it was easy.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Bret Favre announced this morning that he is retiring. Sure it was coming, but it’s still a great loss to pro football, not just the Packers.

For seventeen years Bret was in the NFL and brought a great deal of excitement to all football fans. What can you say about one of the all time greats? He was a 3-time NFL MVP, he was a great player, a great fighter, a nice guy, a winner - but even all of these are not enough to say about a player like Favre.

In my own experiences I can only compare him to Johnny Unitas. Players like these are more than just statistics. There are other QB’s that may have more completions, more touchdowns, but it takes more than this to make a great player. In Favre’s case he was an inspiration to his team and all Packer fans. If the score was 20 to nothing, they thought they could still win 21 - 20 with Bret leading the way.

Bret was the man, a throwback to old school football days. Three yards and a cloud of dust was the old school attitude. If you can’t run over them, you run around them. If you can’t throw over them, you throw in front of them. You find a way to win. That was the Johnny Unitas way and it was definitely the Bret Favre way. You don’t need an offensive coordinator on the sidelines telling you what to do. The greats call their own plays in the heat of battle.

Guys like Bret are hard to find and he will be greatly missed come football season. Against him or for him, you loved to see him play.