Niblets for August 2010

nib

Best comment of the month:

From Tena

I’m not a baseball fan, but this whole episode stinks to the high heavens. WHY in God’s name is congress (A group of liars if there ever was one) WASTING their valuable time on a baseball player who allegedly lied about taking drugs that may even kill him someday. The country is in the grip of a horrible mess caused by the inattention of politicians for the last 30 years. That boil is getting ready to burst,and here we have Congress trying to “look busy”. It’s really disgusting. It’s impossible for Congress to hold anyone in contempt, because that is the feeling that the entire country has -against THEM!…..

You must also become a reader of fryingpanpolitics.blog.com because I made EXACTLY the same argument. Well done.

Updates on previous columns:

LeBron, Gilbert, Miami and Cleveland LeBron came back to Cleveland for a bike fund raiser. He was roundly booed and expressed disgust that the city wanted to be paid to provide police protection for the riders. LeBron, if you though that was a bad welcome, wait till the Beach Boys come to play.

The NFL, NFLPA, and an 18 game season. If you … Read more at FryingPanSports

Several NFL QBs are in the frying pan.

Fryingpan Sports

Several NFL QBs are in the frying pan.

FryPan

By Bill Smith

Several NFL QBs are in the frying pan but some stoves are turned up hotter than others. From top to bottom, these are the QBs I see as having to produce this season or they will be somewhere else next year—maybe bagging groceries at Piggly Wiggly.

So hot they have to carry a fire extinguisher everywhere they go:

Minnesota – Tarvaris Jackson Jackson was the problem last year with the Vikes. When the league realized that he couldn’t hit water falling out of a boat, they played 39 guys on the line to stop the running game. Jackson’s 45 passer rating won’t get him a third year under center.

Oakland – JaMarcus Russell Granted that Russell doesn’t have a great offense to work with but if he doesn’t start making better reads somebody will wake up Al Davis long enough to sack him even if he was a top draft choice. The only thing saving him so far is that total lack of any viable alternative on the Raider roster.

St. Louis – Marc Bulger Bulger has been running on rep for a couple of years. With … Read more at FryingPanSports

NFL prepares for free agency and some cuts go deep.

Fryingpan Sports

NFL prepares for free agency and some cuts go deep.

By Bill Smith

Franchise Tags

Giants

The Giants had to put the franchise tag on RB Brandon Jacobs. It was a good move because RB Ahmad Bradshaw is in jail in Virginia from a probation violation and the top backup to Jacobs, Derrick Ward is a free agent as well. The Giants front office screwed up by allowing both top RBs to become FA in the same year. It will cost them because Jacobs will be the average of the top 5 RB salaries which should be around 7.5 million dollars.

It will also cost them to resign Ward. He fired his agent and hired Drew Rosenhaus who is famous for getting the max for his players. When the agent is wearing a mask and carrying a gun, you know the deal is going to be costly.

Ravens

The Ravens have franchised DELB Terrell Suggs. That means that Ray Lewis will be an unrestricted free agent (UFA). Lewis has already said that while he would like to continue to play in Baltimore he would not give the team a “home town discount.” If Lewis moves to another team … Read more at FryingPanSports