We would all be acting ignorant if we were to take at face value what the higher-ups in the NFLPA are spitting at us: that increasing rookie salaries is not one of the main issues of pending talks between the players and owners, and instead just one relevant issue among many.Yes, there are many issues involved in the discussions to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement between NFL players and team owners.However, you better believe that rookie salary is the main, overarching topic.When Matt Ryan, who has never taken a professional snap and was not even picked No. 1 overall in the 2008 NFL Draft, receives $72 million with nearly $35 million guaranteed, veteran players are going to get mad and owners are going to get scared.The answer may be a slotting system, but as NFLPA President Kevin Mawae states, if the players give in on a slotting system, the owners better be giving something back in return.The other major issue I see comes in the debate over what percentage of overall revenue the players should be entitled to. Yesterday, an reporter happened to notice that the Nationals are painfully bad right now. Worse than usual, which is saying something.They are 25-39 and have lost eight of their last 10. So, armed with this knowledge after Sunday’s loss, said reporter asked Manny Acta if the team has reached “rock bottom.” His response was meant to be optimistic but really just scared the crap out of me:“We have way too many games left to hit rock bottom We are not hitting and we know that We show up tomorrow and be ready to snap out of it.
We will.”Living in Charlotte, I haven’t been able to watch as many Nats games as I’d like to, but I’ve seen more than enough to know that Acta may be right: 14 games below .500 is not rock bottom. Yet, there are still 99 games left for the team to get worse.When Manny says the Nationals are “not hitting,” he means that quite literally. Just name any critical offensive statistic, and the Nats will be dead last in the category AVG.? Dead last OBP.? Last SLG.? Last Runs? Last. Home runs not necessarily an “important statistic,” but chicks dig long balls ? Last And so on.But hey, there is some good news. Tyler Clippard, who is supposed to be pretty awesome and was the focus of our gayest post ever, makes his big Nats debut tonight.. Who would of imagined two years removed from theSuperbowl that the Chicago bears would be in the position they are before the start of 08 season.The bears woescontinue this off season from losing in the freeagency to losing the possibly of being acontender in the NFC. The bears this off season have big issues already to address from who is the starting QB, how do they fill the voids in theSwiss cheese style offensive line, who is going to be the number 1 WR, and nowwhose going to be the backfield hopeful.With Benson not producing much last year and Peterson being just a good back-up, there was already a lot of questions. Now with the relase of the starter Benson the bears have a backfield thatconsists of just a good back-up in Peterson, a 2nd year back in Wolfe ,thatdidn’t have that good of a rookie year, and the new rookie in Forte that not many have faith in.Benson may have done the bears a favor gettinghimself cut.
The bears fan nation was not benson’s biggest fan. Bears fanshouldn’t give up all hope. The is a slimpossibility that the bears could get some veteran help in the backfield if they want. On the free agency market there are twodescent veteran backs, ShawnAlexander(the former MVP from the Seahawks) or Kevin Jones from the Detroit lions. Either of this backs would boost the backfield and help with Wolfe’s and Forte’sdevelopment. . The Indians lost Sunday 5-2 to Detroit.
