Carson Palmer Retires

Palmer has said all along that if the Bengals don't trade or release him he would retire. I guess he wasn't kidding...

"I honesty like Carson Palmer. He was a splendid player for us," Brown said, via Joe Reedy of the Cincinnati Enquirer. "He is a good person. I wish him well and he has retired. That is his choice."

"I'm not expecting him to be back. Carson signed a contract, he made a commitment," Brown continued. "He gave us his word. We relied on his word and his commitment. We expected him to perform here. If he is going to walk away from his commitment we aren’t going to reward him for doing it."

Does Bengals owner Mike Brown have the right stance? In a way yes. Palmer signed a contract and he is trying to walk away from that. So, yes he is right for basically not allowing him to do so. That being said, the Bengals now get nothing for Palmer. How is that better?

With so many teams needing QB's (Vikings, Dolphins, Seahawks, Cardinals, just to name a few) the Bengals probably could've got a pretty good return for Palmer. Now, they get nothing, and it will just take the process of being good again even longer (can you even say "again" with the Bengals?), which is just sad for this franchise and their fans.

So while I do think what Palmer is doing is fundamentally wrong (though I can't blame him), getting nothing in return is the worst way for this to end for the Bengals.

Packers To Cut Nick Barnett

The Packers are going to cut LB Nick Barnett this week, which shouldn't come to much of a surprise as it will save Green Bay about $6.9 million in cap space. Barnett was only able to play in a handful of games last year, but he should be scooped up quickly as he is only 30 years old and is only a year removed from having 105 tackles, and 4 sacks.

The Packers should be fine as they made it just fine without him for most of last year, and still have a nice core of Matthews, Hawk, Bishop, and Zombo as their LBs.

Ravens About To Make A Bunch Of Cuts

Although NFL teams can't make cuts till Thursday at 4pm there are already pretty sound reports that the Ravens are going to be making some serious changes to there roster.

The Ravens are expected to cut Willis McGahee, Kelly Gregg, Derrick Mason, and Todd Heap. McGahee isn't a surprise at all he is going to make over 6 million next year, and really just isn't worth it at all, especially since Ray Rice is the obvious #1 back.

Although Mason is getting older (37) he is still coming off a pretty productive year (61 passes for 802 yards and seven touchdowns), but with Boldin on the roster the Ravens needed to find a way to save some money.

Heap is also still productive (five touchdowns, 40 receptions and 599 yards last season), but he has a hard time staying on the field. As for Gregg, he is scheduled to make over $3 million, but most people think there is a good chance the Ravens resign him.

The Ravens were getting a bit older, so I can understand the changeover, but I do think this could hurt them next year. McGahee sucks, but Mason and Heap have been good players for this team and they could miss that production. It will be interesting to see who steps up and picks up the slack.

Banta-Cain Has Abdominal Surgery (UPDATED)

Patriots outside linebacker Tully Banta-Cain underwent surgery for an abdominal tear on Friday, according to a league source. It was an injury he had been dogged by last season, and it flared up during recent offseason workouts. (The usual recovery time for such an injury is approximately 4-6 weeks.)

Banta-Cain is a guy I undervalue every year. Last season he surprised me once again with 50 tackles and 5 sacks. Sure those aren't all that impressive, but consider the leader of the Patriots in sacks had 5.5 this is actually a hit for the Patriots. In a way I am glad, I never liked Banta-Cain, I think he's weak and I hope this pushes the Patriots to add someone, but it won't. They will end up hope Cunningham or someone surprises them and can be their next pass rusher.


***UPDATE***

Or maybe the Patriots won't wait for him to comeback...

"ESPN's Adam Schefter reports that Tully Banta-Cain has been told by the New England Patriots that he will be released."

Obviously, the Patriots could just resign him once he is healthy again.

Football's Back! Players Approve Deal To End NFL Lock Out (VIDEO)

After a frustrating 140 days, the NFL lock out is over and Football is back!

Representatives for National Football League players approved a 10-year labor agreement, ending a four-month shutdown and allowing the U.S.’s richest and most-popular sports league to reopen for business.

NFL Players Association leadership voted unanimously to recommend that players accept the deal and re-establish their union, according to DeMaurice Smith, the group’s executive director.

“Football is back,”

Commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters outside the association’s Washington headquarters.

Teams can begin signing drafted and undrafted first-year players tomorrow; negotiating with, but not signing, other players; and making trades. As of July 29, teams can begin signing free agents and training camps may open 15 days before each team’s first preseason game.

Owners last week approved by a 31-0 vote the decade-long deal that caps team payrolls at about $120 million this season, with players receiving another $22 million or so in benefits. The players must receive at least 47 percent of the league’s revenue, projected at a record $9.3 billion in 2011, throughout the 10 years.

The agreement also limits how much teams can spend on first-year players, allows current players to stay in the league’s medical plan for life and allows them more days off, with fewer offseason practices. The deal also provides between $900 million and $1 billion for retiree benefits.






RELATED LINKS:

Former NFL Chief's Running Back, Larry Johnson, Talks To Lady T About The NFL Lock Out, Working w/ Jay-Z & What Team He May Join!

The Lock Out Is Over

Well who knows. But they have been reporting that it's over all weekend.

This was just a big waste of time to me to be honest. I don't really even care about what happened or what was accomplished. It doesn't seem like anything that I care about. Logan Mankins will not be a free agent, and the franchise tag still exists.

The thing I'm most excited about is the free agent frenzy that is going to happen. Where is Nnamdi Asomghua, Santonio Holmes, Ray Edwards, Carson Palmer, and Braylon Edwards go.

Much like the Patriots, the Steelers also never sign guys that I get excited about so I can throw Nnamdi out the window.

Whatever, the lock out is "over", and training camp begins Thursday. From an outside perspective it seems as if the owners won.

Kristin Cavallari, Jay Cutler break off Engagement

"The Hills" star had been engaged to the quarterback since April.

MTV reality star Kristin Cavallari and Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler have called off their engagement, according to published reports.

Cutler proposed to the Laguna Beachand The Hills star in April as they vacationed in Mexico. The couple, who had been dating since last fall, were said to be planning a spring wedding.

As recently as last week Cavallari tweeted about her recent engagement party.

"Thx to all my amazing friends for making my engagement party a blast last night!" she wrote.

The couple also had recently completed their wedding registry.

People reported that the break-up came as a shock to Cavallari, who had planned to move to Chicago for the upcoming football season.

Cavallari rose to fame in reality TV but has since dabbled in acting with appearances in ABC's The Middle and CBS' CSI: NY.

Cutler spent three seasons with the Denver Broncos after the 2006 NFL draft before being traded to the Bears in 2009.

Whoever Isn't On Mankins Side Is A D Bag

One of the hurdles right now with the CBA is Logan Mankins and him wanting to be free from the Patriots. The Patriots have lied to him, franchised him and lowballed him on a deal and Logan Mankins has had enough.

Mankins is the best guard in the NFL, he has played 7 years in the NFL and has never had a shot at free agency, and everyone and their mother want to vilify this guy because he wants to get the contract and money he deserves. If we weren't talking about an NFL player and talking about an average Joe here, people would be on the side of the average Joe, but because we are talking about a millionaire people want to sell him down the river.

I hope that Goodell and most of the owners side on Mankins side and set him free..... and then he signs with Pittsburgh.

Cedric Benson Goes To Jail.... Again

With all the Steelers getting framed for things the passed couple of offseasons, it's finally good to see the police finally arrested a criminal.

Travis County sheriff's spokesman Roger Wade said Benson was arrested in downtown Austin on a misdemeanor count of assault with bodily injury with family violence. Benson attorney Sam Bassett said in a statement the arrest followed "a conflict" between Benson and a male former roommate. ESPN

This isn't good for Benson figuring he is an unrestricted free agent, and the end is in sights for the lock out. Figuring there are going to be a lot of fines/ suspensions once the lock out is lifted I expect Cedric to be suspended for a game, due to his continuous awful off field issues.

Forgetting about this, any team that gets Benson will have a quality runningback. He has rejuvenated his career in Cincinnati and will be a high priority free agent, so it will be interesting if this incident effects that at all.

NFL Player Larry Johnson Talks To @DjLadyT About Lock Out, Endorsements, Jay-Z & What Team He May Be Going To!

With the lock out going on some free-agent players are still up in the air as to which team they could be heading to...NFL Player, Larry Johnson gives Lady T the scoop!

NFL Running Back - Larry Johnson talks to Lady T from http://TalkOfTheTown411.com about endorsements, the NFL lock out, working with Jay -Z and what team he may be heading to!


WATCH IT FROM YOUR PHONE CLICK HERE!

Harrison Apologizes

Harrison apologized for making those stupid comments a couple days ago. Here is the main part. I am going to skip the whole Goodell thing because he didn't really apologizes, and in my eyes doesn't really need to. What he did need to apologize for was ripping his teammates...

"I did make comments about my teammates when I was talking about the emotional Super Bowl loss, but the handful of words that were used and heavily publicized yesterday were pulled out of a long conversation and the context was lost. Obviously, I would never say that it was all Ben’s or Rashard’s fault that we lost the Super Bowl. That would be ridiculous. Both Ben and Rashard are great players and great teammates. Clearly the entire team bears responsibility for the loss, me included. It was a team effort and a team loss. My teammates know me well, and hopefully understand the things I said were not meant to accuse them of the loss. We all have discussed several things that went wrong in the Super Bowl since that day. What I do apologize for and take full responsibility for is for speaking in such a candid manner to someone outside the team (James Harrison - profootballtalk.nbcsports.com)."

There is a very good chance that his original quote wasn't as bad as it sounded, but you just don't go out and say things like that about a teammate. He needed to apologize for that, because that is team business and they have enough analyst in the media that will tell everyone what went wrong in the Super Bowl. There is no reason to go out and make problems with a team heading into the next year. I don't think it will after this, and I think it's smart that he did.

As for the "Goodell quotes", he shouldn't be that blunt. It's not going to help him when his next fine comes up, but I also can't fault a guy for being really pissed off when someone keeps fining you crazy amounts of money for playing football tough. Overall I haven't had a huge problem with most of hits. Sure there were some that deserved a fine, but there were also others that didn't deserve anything.

But as for Harrison denying he ever said those things about his teammates, that's just not true. He did, and is playing the out of context card.

I Wonder What The Going Rate Of Randy Moss Will Be

Yesterday Randy Moss's agent came out and said that he was in freakishly good shape. I don't know if that means anything, because I believe he was probably in freakishly good shape last year, it's just his head wasn't.

But Randy Moss is a pretty good question mark going into next season. He's 34, just had a year in which he was on 3 different teams, 2 of them being disasters and had statistically his worst season of his career.

There are rumors that the Jets might be the team that signs him because they have WR issues with 3 of their top 4 receivers are free agents (Brad Smith, Santonio Holmes and Braylon Edwards) So it would make sense to them to let Edwards go and save money for some of their defensive free agents. I think Holmes and Moss will probably be with the Jets where he will most likely thrive because there is no way someone goes from putting up such gaudy numbers to shit like he did last year.

Breaking News: Writer For The James Harrison Story Lied

When the story broke yesterday, I was fine with pretty much everything he said for the exception of the Ben/ Mendenhall comments, but since the story broke from Men's Health author Paul Solotarof a lot of things haven't added up. 1 is that James Harrison vehemently denies saying any of the stuff about his teammates and 2 this scumbag author also said that a lot of players have called him up backing James Harrison up. If that is the case, why wouldn't they call up Harrison instead of searching for some no name author for some dumb magazine. This is just another situation when people gang up to pick on poor James Harrison.

Also, on another note, good for James Harrison for going after the commissioner rather then doing the pussy Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Peyton Manning technique by showing signs of weakness and saying, "we gave up a lot, let's just get it done" approach to the strike. This is the only strike where people are siding with the players and that's what you give people.... C'mon guys fight the machine man.

Also, with the picture above with James Harrison and the guns. The story is called Hitman, and in the video game Hitman that's what the character does, everyone needs to shut up about that.

McNabb To Titans?

We have been hearing for awhile now that Kolb is going to be traded to the Cardinals. The Cardinals I had as one of the top teams likely to get McNabb. I still think the best spot for McNabb is the Vikings, but the Titans make a lot of sense. They are a boarder playoff caliber team, they have a great running back, and could use a vet to give some time to develop Jake Locker. With Kerry Collins retiring the door seems to be open for McNabb to pick put that roll of being a bridge, and I think in the right offense he could be very good again (another option could be Hasselbeck).

There is a couple reasons why I think the Vikings should go harder after McNabb. For one Ponder sucks. That was a terrible pick and I can't wait to see how stupid they look in a year or two. Even if he is something I can't see him being ready to go this year, and that could be a serious problem as this team is ready to win now. McNabb could be a nice fit, and they have a lot of very good WRs that McNabb could spread the field with. That coupled with a great running game and you would think the Vikings could at least challenge in the NFC North again.

Crazy James Harrison, Being Crazy Again

This is what James Harrison said of BMack, I mean Roger Goodell yesterday:
"If that man was on fire and I had to piss to put him out, I wouldn't do it," Harrison told the magazine. "I hate him and will never respect him."

His other descriptions of the commissioner include an anti-gay slur, "stupid," "puppet" and "dictator."

Well if I called my boss a fag, stupid, a puppet, dictator and that I flat out hate him, it probably wouldn't go well. And even though there is a strike going on right now, its eventually going to end, and your eventually going to helmet to helmet someone James and then Roger Goodell is going to go all Monty Burns on you and make your life miserable.

I'm torn on Goodell though, sometimes I think he takes small things too seriously and is very hypocritical when it comes to "player safety", but I also think he has done a good job of cleaning up the NFL's image.

But regardless, I'm going to agree with James Harrison because he has black and yellow on.

NFL Dream Team

ESPN had their NFL Dream Team talks today, and it got me thinking about what would be the best NFL team you could build. I will not do offensive lineman, because well I know very little about good ones and really only notice them when my QB is lying on the turf with a concussion. Anyways here it is...

Offense:
QB: Tom Brady
RB: Chris Johnson
RB: Steven Jackson - I know a lot of people won't like that, but that combo would be awesome.
WR: Calvin Johnson
WR: Andre Johnson
Slot WR: Wes Welker
TE: Jason Witten

Defense:
DE: Mario Williams
DE: Julius Peppers
DT: Vince Wilfork
OLB: DeMarcus Ware
MLB: Patrick Willis
MLB: Ray Lewis
OLB: Clay Matthews
CB: Charles Woodson
CB: Darrelle Revis
FS: Ed Reed
SS: Troy Polamalu

The safties were by far the hardest. Ed Reed and Polamalu can both get burned, but there isn't a lot else to choose from. I love Eric Berry, but that pretty much because of 1 song, and Landry is awesome, but Polamalu basically does the same thing just better. I hate having a Steeler on there, but if you are picking the best that's where he would be.

Hines Ward Obviously Framed For DUI

"Ward is claiming that even though he was cuffed for the offense, he wasn’t intoxicated. “From our preliminary investigation, we can tell you that we are confident that the facts will show that Hines was NOT impaired by alcohol while driving,” his rep Andrew Ree" Ward was "caught" "drunk driving" while in Georgia.

See, obviously the cops were out to make another athlete into a bad guy. It's sickening to be honest. First Casey Anthony is found innocent, then Catherine Greig is granted probation and now this. Just another case of some yahoo cop trying to make a name for himself. Since it was in Georgia I'm pretty confident in saying that the cop was most likely racist and seeing a Asian/Black guy driving is like prime rib to a dog down there. It's a shame that America hasn't got past all of this racism by now.

Kerry Collins Retires

After 16 NFL seasons, Titans quarterback Kerry Collins has announced his retirement, and I couldn't be happier. I just never liked the guy. Maybe it's because I always thought that Vince Young should be starter, or maybe it was his time with the Giants, but whatever it was I always hated him. Also, he was so overrated, and was part of the worst Super Bowl game ever (Giants/Ravens). So fuck him.

Anyways, this could open the door for the Titans to bring in another veteran (Matt Hasselbeck?) to act as a mentor for Locker and buy the Titans some time to get him prepared.

Owners Get Another Win

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has made its ruling: the lockout put in place by the NFL owners is legal. This is bad news for the NFLPA, but from everything I have been reading the deal on a new CBA is getting close, so if anything I think this might make it happen faster. I can't wait to not have to write about this anymore, and the free agency period should be a lot of fun since it will happen really fast. Anything is better then reading/writing about this anymore.

It Has Begun....

NFL.com – Brett Favre hasn’t made any indication that he’s pondering a return for a 21st NFL season. Still, NFL.com senior analyst Gil Brandt remains confident the gunslinger might have one more comeback attempt in him. Brandt indicated during his Tuesday NFL.com chat that Favre could be interested in another season, and he elaborated on those thoughts Wednesday on NFL Network’s “NFL Total Access.” Brandt, who headed the Cowboys’ player personnel department for nearly three decades, said “quarterbacks never want to retire” and made reference to Roger Staubach, the former Dallas star whom Brandt joked probably still believes he can play. Brandt said pre-draft reports of Favre’s interest in mentoring No. 1 overall draft pick Cam Newton indicate the 41-year-old still has the bug to return… “Favre is enough of a competitor that if somebody said to him, ‘Come on, come on in, we can use you. You might not be a starter,’ I think he would come out of his retirement.”

The Ole Gunslinger is at it again and maybe coming out of retirement this year. This is no surprise as he went away last year for people to forget how much of an awful person he is and how bad he was in in Minnesota.

It would really piss me off if this assbag return because then I would have to hear about how tough he is and such a warrior for another year. Could he help out as a back up.... sure, but I don't think that's Brett Favre's style.