Shakedownsports.com

After weeks of speculation and bargaining the Titans finally agreed to trade Pacman Jones to the Cowboys for a 4th round pick. What took so long? Was Jerry Jones busy recovering from reconstructive surgery?

This isn’t the first time there’s been an NFL trade that took weeks to happen, and then when it finally did happen, involved a single late round draft pick. I want to know what goes on in those trade discussions? Does one team counter a 3rd round pick offer with a 7th rounder, then a week later counter a 4th rounder with a 6th rounder, then a week later finally agree on a 5th round pick?

These lengthy trade discussion are just one symptom of teams overvaluing mid-round draft picks. Very few 3rd-7th rounders become NFL starters, yet nobody wants to trade them—even for proven starters who have manageable contracts. When the draft rolls around NFL GMs become like fantasy team owners—they don’t want to give up the excitement of making a draft pick that will surely prove their genius. Maybe they should. (I think the Vikings will be happy they did.)

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NFL rookie contracts are going to destroy the league’s salary structure. I touched on this last year, but since the league has no intention of coming up with a solution (which is good news for Jake Long), I’ll rant about it again.

In case you haven’t heard, the Dolphins just made Jake long the highest paid lineman in the league. He has played zero NFL games.

For those who think it’s a good deal for Miami, take a look at the offensive lineman who have been drafted in the top 5 since 2001:

Joe Thomas, Levi Brown, D’Brickashaw Fergeson, Robert Gallery, Mike Williams, and Leonard Davis.

Of those six, Williams and Gallery have been complete busts, Thomas looks like a future star, Davis is a solid player but at guard not tackle, and the jury is still out on Fergeson and Brown. It’s a small sample size, but it’s not exactly the evidence you’d like to see before making a rookie the highest paid lineman in the league.

The problem for the Dolphins and other teams drafting in the top 5 is they have no choice. Every rookie wants to make more than the rookies before them and teams don’t have the leverage to say no. This forces the worst teams in the league to hand out bad contracts, and so instead of being rewarded with a high draft picks, the NFL teams in need of the most help are punished with cap-killing deals. Roger Goodell needs to spend less time destroying video tapes, and more time creating a rookie salary structure.

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E:60’s ambush of Miguel Tejada was flat out wrong. It was television at it’s lowest point. Pure exploitation in order to get ratings. What did Tejada do to deserve being lured into a studio and left bare in front of a camera on live tape-delayed TV? This isn’t “To Catch a Predator.” Nobody can think to themselves that the guy on camera deserved what he got. Nobody can think ESPN was helping out it’s viewers by calling attention to Tejada’s real age. It was simply entrapment. Tom Ferry tricked Tejada into lying and then he had the brazeness to keep yelling questions as Tejada left the room.

I guarantee Tejada was led to believe the interview would be about something else. How do you even describe what E60 did. Unethical? Sleazy? Ruthless exploitation?

The last question Ferry yelled was “does the U.S. government know your real name?” He was indirectly implying Miguel Tejada was some sort of terrorist or a threat to the U.S. government. That’s insane. What’s even more insane is millions of people wasted 30 seconds of their lives being exposed to that idea. And think, when Tejada woke up that morning he thought the tough questions would be about adjusting to National League pitching.

Kudos to the Astros for sticking by Tejada. The new report changes nothing. The affected parties received no new information. It’s fake news, and the team is doing the right thing by ignoring it.

There’s a reason that no legitimate sports magazine TV show has ever had a long run. There aren’t enough important stories to entice enough sports fans to watch large blocks of non-game, non-highlight programming. Apparently E60 is going to do whatever it takes to find (or create) enough stories.

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Unlike the West, the Eastern Conference playoffs have a chance to be pleasantly surprising (thank you, low expectations).

The other reason the Eastern Conference playoffs will be good? The Washington Wizards. They meet the Cavs in the playoffs for the 3rd straight year and that first round series will be the best in the NBA not involving the Spurs and Suns. The Wizards want to beat the Cavs. Badly. Meanwhile, David Stern wants the Cavs to win. Badly.

Should the Wizards prevail (and I think they will), they’ll take on the Celtics (who will be coming off a closer than expected series against a very athletic Hawks team). Right now handing the Eastern Conference to the Celtics is all the rage, but the Wizards will beat them. (I’d like to be higher on the Celtics, but every time I turn on my TV they’re being pummeled by a short-handed Wizards team.)

For the first time in years all eight Eastern Conference playoff teams have potential.  The Hawks are young and athletic. The Sixers might be playing the best basketball in the NBA.  The Raptors could have won ten more games if they weren’t playing for the #6 seed.  Put everything together and you’ve got the best Eastern Conference playoffs in ages.

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The Western Conference playoffs start on Saturday. And I’m more disappointed than J.J. Redick’s life coach.

Two weeks ago it looked like this might be the most exciting Western Conference playoffs of all time. There were be 8 legitimate title contenders, seven potentially spectacular playoff series, and an exciting air of uncertainty. Now all that has changed.

It started with Golden State missing the playoffs. That left only seven real contenders (sorry Denver) and gave the #1 seed a huge advantage.

Then the Lakers (the one team who given the right circumstances could cruise to the Finals) locked up that #1 seed.

Then the Lakers were given the right circumstances—two relatively easy matchups (vs. Denver, vs Utah or Houston) and a conference finals opponent who will be tired and worn down.

In effect, those eight contenders were narrowed down to five (I’m short changing Utah and Houston, but they just won’t be able to beat the Lakers).  Four of those contenders were put on one side of the bracket. The Lakers were put on the other side. So while the Lakers can cruise to the Conference Finals, we have to watch meetings between Phoenix and San Antonio, Dallas and New Orleans, Phoenix and Dallas etc. that will come much to early in the post-season.

Yeah, it will still be better than last year’s Eastern Conference playoffs, but think of what could have been?

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LSU’s new basketball coach has another talent

We can only home that someday there will be a mano-a-mano match between Jonson and Billy Madison to determine who’s #1 at injuring unsuspecting dodgeball participants.

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Oh, Melo, what were you thinking? It seems we are subject to some irresponsible action or legal infraction by a professional athlete every week, and this week’s spotlight falls on Carmelo Anthony. It is the timing of this one that makes it even dumber.

After beating the Rockets 111-94 on Sunday night to move just ahead of the Golden State Warriors for 8th place in the play-off hunt, apparently Melo thought it would be a good idea to go joy riding in the early A.M. Anthony was coming off an abysmal 3-14 performance with just 11 points to show for it. He had to rely on teammate Allen Iverson’s 33-7-7 game to help give his team a chance of making the last seed in the play-offs.  Luckily for Melo, the Golden State Warriors lost Monday night, meaning Anthony and Co. are going to the play-offs for the 5th straight year. I wonder if he saw this from the drunk tank, or if he had already been bailed out in time?

Carmelo Anthony has been in the national limelight since he carried Syracuse to a national championship and then got drafted 3rd, two slots behind (heir apparent to league stardom) Lebron James. But what has he done since? He has averaged 24.5 ppg and made the play-offs 5 straight years, but has yet to carry his team out of the first round. His play-off stats show that his scoring is lower than his career average (24.5 to 20.8), his assists are down (3 to 1.2) and his field goal percentage is almost 7 percent lower (46.2 to 39.5).

So what is he thinking? Instead of buckling up and getting some rest before a strenuous first round match-up with the Lakers (hottest team right now), Melo is off boozing and driving around interstate 25 late at night. With the West deeper than it has ever been, to have even a shot at making some play-off progress you have to be playing your best ball. As the so-called leader of the team, it seems Anthony has resigned himself to losing in the first round of the play-offs (again) and calling it a season. Way to be there for your team. This is the best supporting cast you have ever had (Iverson, Martin, Camby, etc.). I know it is a long shot to beat the 1st seed in the first round, but I remember a certain hyped-up Warriors team doing just that last year. The difference between 1 and 8 is not that big, but I guess Melo just does not have the fortitude, direction, or the drive to make himself a premier player in this league.

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A lot has been made about Roy Williams’ rabid Jayhawk cheerleading on Monday night. Even given Williams’ Kansas background, it was surprising to see him so enthusiastic about the team which had just broken the hearts of his players. Many UNC faithful are not too pleased with their coach—-this article sums it up nicely—so why exactly did Williams do it?

The answer can be found five years ago when Williams decided to leave Kansas and Jayhawks fans around the world called him every dirty name they could think of. It’s clear that Williams never got over the hurt from the vitriol spewed his way. For the last five years he’s wanted Kansas fans to know how much the school meant to him, how much he cared for those Kansas players, and how difficult it was for him to leave. Unfortunately, he never really got a chance to show it.

On Monday night Williams got that chance, and he decided to take it regardless of the consequences. He knew his Kansas sticker would anger people at UNC—but he also knew that anger would likely be short lived. In his mind that was a small price to pay for an opportunity to reclaim 15 years of good feelings and do away with five years of bad ones.

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Gary Roberts was acquired by the Penguins at last year’s trade deadline. He was re-signed in the offseason. All in all, Roberts has been a member of the Penguins for more than a year, but apparently that’s  enough of a reason for his official ESPN.com player card photo to not have him in a Panthers jersey. Maybe if he scores a few more playoffs goals they’ll put him in the black and gold.

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I just heard Michael Vick might be playing some pick-up ball in the prison yard. Dangerous, potentially serious injury causing decision? Hell no! How about Fox’s newest reality show this fall?

The premise: Michael Vick is putting together a football team to take on the guards (ok, so I might have borrowed an idea or two for this one. Maybe we even call it “The Hardest Yard.”) There are tryouts, cuts, interviews, and some good old fashioned dramatic back-stabbing (literally.) Leavenworth puts together their toughest squad. Maybe they even import a guard or two (preferably an ex-college star.) Her are some ideas for the show:

- A prison style combine featuring:
WRs: Scaling the Wall in an Attempted Escape Vertical Jump test and Not Dropping the Soap Hand Skills test
OLs: Pass Blocking the Guards While Your Cellmate Stabs a Rival Gang Member test
LBs: How Quickly You Can Recover from a Taser Shock (shows toughness)
RBs and QBs: Outrunning Prison Dogs (sure, Vick can run 63 yards against an NFL caliber secondary, but try zig-zagging your way around bloodthirsty German Sheppards)
Des: Breaking the Tackle of 5 Men About to…. Well, you get the idea.

- Instead of agent signing and contract negotiation, how about lawyer hiring and plea bargaining?

- Special guest judges (I wonder what prisons Pacman Jones and Chris Henry will be in this fall? And for that matter, I wonder if it matters if it’s state or federal? I will have to contact Fox’s legal department and pull some strings.)

- The season accumulates in the Prison Bowl, which will be aired just like a real game the day of the Super Bowl.

- If the prisoners win, extra conjugal visits. If the gaurds win, extra baton privelages.

- And as an extra twist… if Vick wins, he gets to leave jail early for good behavior. If he loses, Vick goes into solitary confinement for two years.

Fox, I am waiting your phone call.

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