Following an exciting first round, we break down the favorite picks, most pleasant and biggest surprises, most under-appreciated pick, worst move and more.
Peyton Manning, Mario Williams, Mike Wallace and Carl Nicks headline an intriguing free agent class that can shift the balance of power this offseason.
The Eagles seemingly came out of nowhere to sign Nnamdi Asomugha as they eye a trip to the Super Bowl.
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$.01--The NFL was involved in a court decision this week, one that may or may not have an impact on the ongoing Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations. It?s hard to say at this point, because the court case didn?t involve the players or anything on the field but rather the price of hats.
To very briefly summarize the case, a small apparel company called American Needle sued the NFL for violating commerce law for negotiating a league-wide exclusive deal with Reebok to provide all team merchandise hats. American Needle argued that the way the league operated as one unit instead of 32 separate businesses was wrong. After lower courts disagreed, American Needle finally found sympathy with the Supreme Court. The court viewed the NFL as 32 distinct teams, not one collective entity.
What does that mean for the labor negotiations? It provides the NFLPA a couple of options on plans of attack, the most intriguing of which is their ability to de-certify as a union. That would (in theory) allow them to broach the threat of suing the league for antitrust violations. The courts strongly favor management over labor in recent cases, so removing the ?union? tag would certainly help the NFLPA?s cause. It also opens up the opportunity for the NFLPA to attack the league for more money on merchandise deals or perhaps even work some out on their own.
The narrowness of the decision didn?t provide the weakening blow that some NFLPA members and labor advocates hoped for, but it could stoke the fires of disunity amongst the owners. This could be the green light for teams that move a lot of product (say Dallas and Pittsburgh) to broker their own merchandise deals instead of splitting that gigantic pot with the teams that don?t (say St. Louis and Buffalo). Will it drive another wedge between the haves and have-nots? The NFLPA certainly hopes so, but the timing of the decision mitigates that, as the owners are holding their annual meeting this week. That allows them to quickly come up with a united front and digest the medicine together, rather than sweat things out and worry individually.
$.02--One notable decision emanating from the owners meeting is the awarding of the 2014 Super Bowl to the new open-air stadium in New York City. With the game slated for early February, it almost guarantees the Super Bowl will be played in cold weather with a good chance of sloppy conditions. That marks a major change for the league, as previous Super Bowls have always been played in warm climates or domes.
The reaction has been mixed. In general, most everyone that actually attends Super Bowl week hates it, while everyone else thinks it?s a brilliant idea. That might cloud the view you?ve heard from most media, who fall squarely into the former camp and still whine incessantly about the freezing rain in Atlanta a few years back and the ?dreadful? year in Detroit...where the weather wasn?t bad at all for Detroit in mid-winter.
I fall into the latter camp. Weather is a fundamental part of football, so why always sanitize the most important game of the season? It?s high time the league ventures out of their comfort zone of Arizona, Florida, New Orleans, and California for Super Bowls. Let ?em play in New York and Washington DC and New England, in the wind and potential snow and cold. Far too long the Super Bowl has been an exclusive playground of the jet-set while the hard-working die-hard fans never get a whiff of neither the game nor the festival surrounding it. Even if the common fan can?t shell out $1,500 for nosebleed seats, at least now the fans in other cities get the Super Bowl experience and economic benefits. That?s a very good thing for the fans and the game.
$.03--Brett Favre managed to keep his name on the front page of every NFL feature for the 177th consecutive week, this time by confirming he did in fact have surgery on his ankle. It has been described as a minor clean-up procedure, but the significance is that he almost certainly wouldn?t have had the surgery if he didn?t intend on coming back in 2010...which basically confirms everything that everyone has assumed all along. I know the Vikings approached this offseason with the attitude that Favre will be back until he tells them definitively he won?t be, and even then they would still expect him back. Way to keep that streak going, #4 the Media Whore!
$.04--In more medical news, by now you?ve probably seen stories about Dr. Anthony Galea and the hubbub surrounding his detention for trying to enter the country with HGH, Actovegin, and some other drugs. A few NFL names have been released as clients of Dr. Galea: Santana Moss, Chris Simms, and Jamal Lewis.
Those names should help provide a distinct differentiation between what Dr. Galea does and what the stereotypical ?juicers? do. Galea offers advanced healing, not increased weightlifting or body growth. Obviously that is still quite taboo, but be careful before you lump the athletes mentioned in his realm (Tiger Woods and Alex Rodriguez are among others) as trying to get a competitive advantage like Brian Cushing or Barry Bonds. I don?t want to spend time talking about HGH and other PEDs, because I believe those are dead wrong and deserve to be banned, but rather focus on the alternative healing methods that Dr. Galea and others are offering.
I don?t claim to be a medical or training expert, but this really got me thinking. Is the platelet therapy that Galea promotes really any different than microfracture surgery? Both procedures purport to heal injuries quicker by getting blood and oxygen to the impacted area, and Galea?s method is much less destructive and invasive. What about hyperbaric chambers, which you can find in the bedrooms of hundreds of pro athletes? There is a big difference in my mind between healing injuries and enhancing the body with the intent of gaining a competitive advantage. The NFL and NFLPA need to carefully examine that distinction, because in my mind it seems contradictory for teams to have so few options with injured players (out for the season or rushed back on the field) that they shouldn?t explore all sorts of methods of getting healthy safely.
$.05--Non football thought of the week: The Cavaliers fired Mike Brown as head coach this week, ending a five-year run where the team largely underachieved in the playoffs after great success in the regular season.
I have always held the position that Mike Brown is a classic case of a great assistant coach but not a great head coach, akin to the 4A player in baseball. His inability to control LeBron James proved a fatal flaw. That is not a shot at James, either, but rather the reality that LeBron sometimes needs reining in and forceful criticism, and Mike Brown never could do that. All superstars need a coach they respect and trust to not just be a ?yes man? and kowtow to their every desire. True greats relish that challenge from their coaches, which is why Phil Jackson has had so much success with Michael Jordan and now Kobe Bryant, and why Red Auerbach accomplished so much with Bill Russell and John Havlicek. There must be some pushing back and forth, some clear stratification that the superstar player is not above the coach. Pat Riley did that with Dwayne Wade and won a title with a squad that shouldn?t have a prayer against this Cavs unit, which lost in the 2nd round two of the last three years. I truly believe that a more experienced, tougher coach would have won at least one title with LeBron & Co. already. Mike Brown is a good guy and a fair coach, but not a championship-level coach that can control a mega talent. The next guy in Cleveland--or wherever LeBron winds up--had better be one that can, or else the mountains of cash poured at King James? feet will be wasted money.
