Bears
- John Glennon at The Tennessean updates the status of the Titan’s quest to fill out their coaching staff. There’s been no comment from the Titans regarding the reports that they are interested in Bears offensive line coach Mike Tice. as an offensive coordinator. It could be much ado about nothing.
- The message is right but unfortunately the Packers aren’t the only thing that sucks in this video:
I will concede, however, that it’s better than I could do.
Elsewhere
- Sports business analyst Rick Harrow tells ESPN that the labor negotiations are business as usual. At the same time he contradicts himself by saying that NFLPA president DeMaurice Smith is inexperienced and doesn’t realize that its not a war with the owners. That’s not business as usual. That’s real trouble.
- Chris Mortenson and Adam Schefter at ESPN explain why talks between the NFL and the union have broken down:
“According to sources familiar with the talks, last week’s negotiations between the NFLPA and the NFL broke off when the union characterized its documents as an “illustration” that NFL officials believed represented a proposal for revenue sharing between owners and players.”
“When the NFLPA characterized documents labeled “NFLPA Proposal” as something other than a collective bargaining proposal, the NFL ended the session, a source familiar with the talks said.”
Translation: Misunderstandings aside, the NFL ultimately walked out of the talks because the union isn’t negotiating. The owners were looking for a proposal from the union in response to their own. They didn’t get it.
- The Hall of Fame selection process is under scrutiny in the media, presumably in part because there’s not much else to talk about. Toni Monkovic at the New York Times summarizes the arguments.
- Mike Florio at profootballtalk.com provides a particularly interesting and thorough at the process. He has suggestions for improving it.
- Florio also points out the irony in the league assuming responsibility for the Super Bowl seating mess when it is, in fact, most closely related to the mistakes on the part of the Cowboys and owner Jerry Jones. Jones is believed to be a strong voice in league meetings against more extensive revenue sharing:
“’Right now, we are subsidizing this market,’ Jones said in August 2009 regarding the Vikings and the place they currently call home. ‘It’s unthinkable to think that you’ve got the market you got here — 3 ½ million people — and have teams like Kansas City and Green Bay subsidizing the market. That will stop. . . . That’s going to stop. That’s on its way out.’
“So Jones doesn’t want his team to subsidize other teams by sharing revenues, but other teams will potentially be subsidizing the Cowboys by sharing in the expenses arising from his ultimately failed effort to cram 103,986-plus bodies into his new stadium for Super Bowl XLV.”
- Former NFL safety Matt Bowen , now at The National Football Post, breaks down the Packer’s Sam Shield‘s press coverage technique on this play where he allowed the Steeler’s Mike Wallace into the end zone in Super Bowl XLV:
- Brad Biggs, also writing for NFP, points out that the Williams Wall is crumbling, at least temporarily. Both defensive tackles Pat and Kevin Williams have undergone offseason surgery. They are also each facing possible four game suspensions and they are finally being forced to stand up and take personal responsibility for taking an illegal substance in the StarCaps fiasco.
- Judd Zulgad at the Minneapolis Star Tribune interviews Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe. Shiancoe has looked closely at the Atlanta Falcon’s offense and likes what he sees. Atlanta was the home of new offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave and they used the tight end a a primary target. The bad news for Shiancoe? He’s not Tony Gonzales.
One Final Thought
Zulgad says Shiancoe isn’t talking about a new contract as he enters the final season of the $18.2 million deal he signed as a free agent in 2007:
“The thing is that you don’t ever want to be that complainer. You don’t want to bring any [problems] upon your team in any way, shape, form or fashion. It’s part of your job to know a when and where, a time and a place for certain things. That wasn’t a time or place to ever complain. That’s nothing you’ll ever see me do. I’ll never complain.”