Promising Cardinals second round running back Ryan Williams was carted off the field Friday night with what appeared to be a potentially serious right knee injury.
The team crowded around Williams before he was carted off. Williams left the field with his head in his hands.
Williams was competing with Beanie Wells for carries in the Cardinals backfield.
The team doesn’t have great depth at the position after trading away Tim Hightower.
John Mullin, the latest member of the CSN family to join PFT Live, covers the Bears for CSNChicago.com. As to running back Matt Forte’s quest for a new contract, Mullin reports that the Bears and the player “are thinking dramatically different numbers.”
Forte said earlier this month that he may not play in the preseason absent a new deal. That threat apparently hasn’t gotten the team’s attention.
“We want to stay focused on the season and we also want to do the right thing by Matt,” G.M. Jerry Angelo told our friends at WSCR today, via Mullin. “But we’ll just see how things play out.”
Forte has been a solid player, but he’s far closer to interchangeable part than transcendent tailback like Chris Johnson or Adrian Peterson. And the recent free-agency carousel has confirmed that veteran tailbacks who move chains but don’t hit home runs won’t get big money.
In three seasons, Forte has rushed for 3,236 yards. His average per carry is 4.0.
Forte, a second-round pick in 2008, could be restricted in 2012 by the franchise tag.
Forte is not a super star, and the Bear are not going to pay him like a superstar. Running backs in this league are a dime a dozen, unless they are the rare talents aka CJ, AP, and Jamaal Charles.
Posted by Mike Florio on August 19, 2011, 2:14 PM EDT
As the Colts prepare to host the Redskins tonight at Lucas Oil Field, Colts owner Jim Irsay is preparing to donate $1 for each ticket distributed to the victims of the stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair and their families. The team also will be encouraging fans to donate $10 to the Indiana State Fair Remembrance Fund by texting FAIR to 27722*.
“Last Saturday our community was shaken to the core as we witnessed a tragedy that claimed five lives and left many injured. Through this heartbreaking accident, we have seen the strength, courage and compassion of Hoosiers across this great state,” Irsay said in a release issued by the team. “As we remember those we lost and offer our thoughts and prayers, I invite our fans to join us in lending a hand to help these families through this difficult time.”
The horrifying incident, though characterized by those with a vested interest in avoiding legal or moral accountability as a fluke, wasn’t. As our friends at Weather.com (and NBC property) point out, the coming weather conditions were clearly known. A full 10 minutes before the collapse, the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning — including a specific warning of wind gusts greater than 60 miles per hour.
All too often, we’re oblivious or ambivalent about bad weather, ignoring it until it’s directly on top of us. In all too many cases, that mistake — whether involving multiple deaths due to a supposedly “fluke” occurrence or individual lightning strikes all across the country — is fatal.
Chiefs first round wide receiver Jonathan Baldwin was mysteriously missing from Chiefs practice on Wednesday.
A radio report in Kansas City hinted there may be more to the story, but we passed on mentioning it until more information came out. Well, it’s out now.
If Nick Wright of 610 Radio in Kansas City is right, the story is a doozy.
Wright reports that Baldwin will likely miss the rest of the preseason after injuring his wrist during a locker room scuffle with teammate Thomas Jones. Baldwin’s work ethic has reportedly been an issue.
“He’s as advertised,” a source tells Wright. “Diva, spoiled, doesn’t wanna listen. Can run a Go and a Slant, and doesn’t wanna work.”
The Chiefs flew to Baltimore on Thursday in preparation for Friday’s preseason game. The team hasn’t said whether Baldwin was on the flight with them.
Baldwin was already struggling in Chiefs camp before this news came out. He looks unlikely to play much early in the year.
UPDATE: Adam Schefter confirms the story is spot on. Wright, meanwhile, believes Baldwin could be out 6-8 weeks and is very questionable for the season opener.
This is disappointing, but not exactly a shocker. Baldwin had some character concerns before the draft and his pro day was reportedly underwhelming. I was optimistic that Baldwin would put that stuff behind him, show up to camp in shape, and just focus on becoming a good football player for an already potent Chiefs offense. However when watching him in the preseason opener run a lazy slant route and lack burst, my optimism faded. Hopefully the young man can get his head screwed on straight, because he has so many physical gifts.
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello confirmed Thursday that discipline for Kenny Britt, who was arrested three times over the offseason, is "pending."
Britt said last week that he had not yet heard from the league but was expecting to shortly. While none of his infractions have been serious in nature, Britt could face an early-season suspension as a repeat offender. His status for Week 1 may well be up in the air into September, as the NFLPA could appeal all discipline handed down for incidents that occurred during the lockout. A WR1 talent, Britt is still well worth drafting at his current late-sixth, early-seventh round ADP.
Giants RE Osi Umenyiora is out 3-4 weeks after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his troublesome knee.
It wasn't a phantom knee injury, after all. Umenyiora complained of knee "soreness" after ending his holdout, and rumors he might need the joint scoped proved true. The timetable will likely keep Osi out of the Giants' opener, and perhaps more games based on his ability to recover. Jason Pierre-Paul will take over as New York's starting weak-side end. If "JPP" plays like he's capable, Umenyiora will have a tough time getting his job back.
The bad part, at least for Ocho: The former Bengal may not be any more important than the guys above.
Tom Curran of CSNNE.com writes Friday that Ochocinco has a long way to go to integrate himself into the offense, despite his short touchdown on Thursday. Ochocinco got pulled off the field at one point by Bill Belichick and chewed out, apparently for failing to block.
Another drive was spent on the sideline with receivers coach Chad O’Shea in his ear.
“It’s like a machine out there and I’m that one part that’s not up with anybody else,” Ochocinco admitted. “I got a long way to go, personally. … “I’m behind the 8-ball tremendously.”
Curran points out that Tom Brady isn’t fully confident in Ocho yet. It sounds like Ocho isn’t confident in himself either.
“I need them to stay in my ear constantly, especially during the preseason,” Ochocinco said. “The more I hear, the more I can absorb and become a sponge. The more relaxed I am, the better I play.”
The simple fact that Chad indicates here that he likes to be coached hard is a good sign. Belichick is not going to take it easy on anyone, but he will get willing and capable players up to speed. It is what he does.
Posted by Mike Florio on August 19, 2011, 11:26 AM EDT
On Thursday, agent Drew Rosenhaus told PFT that former Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor won’t appeal the five-game suspension imposed by Commissioner Roger Goodell as, in essence, a favor to the NCAA. Pryor’s lawyer, David Cornwell, is now singing a different tune.
Cornwell, who made a passionate case on Pryor’s behalf earlier this week on PFT Live, told ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike in the Morning that Pryor eventually will appeal.
“[Commissioner Roger Goodell] indicated that we have the right to appeal within three days after Terrelle signs an NFL contract, and given some of the developments both in reaching the decision and comments out of the [NFL Players Association] regarding the decision, I think it’s likely that we will file an appeal, and give the Players Association an opportunity to make it’s objections to this on the record,” Cornwell said.
Even though the NFL insists that the decision to suspend Pryor, which arises from avague and broad provision of the NFL Constitution and By-Laws, sets no precedent, players should be concerned — and that’s probably the ultimate reason for the appeal. The NFL clearly wants to do right by the curators of its free farm system, and while there’s no “precedent” in a legal sense (indeed, the NFL would prefer not to be bound by past cases when considering the merits of new ones), the move represents the first attempt by the NFL to “help” the NCAA with the possibly unsolvable problem of enforcing inconsistently enforced rules with substandard resources and no real desire to ferret out every possible violation for fear that star players wouldn’t be available for big games such as, say, the 2010 Sugar Bowl, as the NCAA continues to implement an inherently unfair and hypocritical culture of using the talents of young men and women to make a ton of money while at the same time giving them the wholesale value of an “education” that many of them wouldn’t have wanted in the first place.
If the NFLPA lets this one slide, then the NFL will try in the future to take similar action when a former college player who has gotten himself in trouble with the NCAA wants to play pro football.
When the Cardinals traded cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie to Philly, the assumption was that No. 5 overall pick Patrick Peterson would replace him in the starting lineup.
The Cardinals are using Peterson as a kick returner, which could be a sign he won’t play every snap on defense early in the year. Coach Ken Whisenhunt usually favors veterans early in camp and it’s too early to say much of anything. But we just haven’t heard a lot about Peterson making an impact just yet.
That about sums it up. With safety Adrian Wilson out indefinitely, the Cardinals need the young guys in their secondary to step up, with Peterson foremost among them.
Patriots running back Danny Woodhead put together an excellent performance Friday night, with 63 yards on five carries.
He was surprisingly still in the game in the fourth quarter, when he took a vicious hit returning a punt. He bounced up immediately, but was clearly wobbly and had to be held up by teammates.
In typical Patriots fashion, Woodhead said after the game, “I feel fine.”
“I saw him in the locker room and he seemed OK,” Bill Belichick said via Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com.
Even if Woodhead did suffer a concussion, we probably won’t know about it. The Patriots big names mostly avoided injury in the game. Linebacker Dane Fletcherleft with a thumb injury and special teamer/safety Bret Lockett was carted off with a groin problem.
I am not too sure that he is fine, every indication that he suffered at least a mild grade concussion were on display. Also, he did not immediately bounce up. In fast he laid motionlessly a brief 2 seconds or more before he got up and began wobbling. I wouldn't be surprised if he sits out the rest of preseason.
This is one of the funniest football articles I have read in some time. It has nothing to do with the Bucs, but just the transition to the NFL for young players.
“[Adrian] Clayborn came to me and was like, ‘Oh my god, it was so fast!’ I said, ‘I know! That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!’ It was a reality check, we needed that,” defensive tackle Gerald McCoy said via Greg. A. Bedard of theBoston Globe.
“Man, I’m telling you man, they came out, they’d turn around huddle, snap, oh, ‘There’s the Mike, Go!’ I was like, ‘Dang! Um, Mr. Brady, can we line up?’ He didn’t care. He was like, ‘You’re not going to line up.”’ McCoy said. “When we turned around one time I checked back around and my hand was going to the grass and they were like, ‘Hut!’ And I said, ‘Noooooooooooo!’”
The Patriots played at a very quick tempo, and the Bucs couldn’t recognize how to match up quickly. McCoy thinks it’s exactly what the team needed after getting a “false sense of security last week.”
“[Linebacker Mason Foster? He needed to see Tom Brady. He didn’t see to see Calabaloo from last week, whatever the dude’s name was. I’m sorry if you can hear this. I don’t know who you were, I’m sorry. It’s nothing personal,” McCoy said.
The allegations of impropriety in the sexual assault case against Patriots defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth are growing.
Earlier this week, Haynesworth’s lawyer claimed that the alleged victim’s lawyer hadoffered a witness $50,000 to testify against Haynesworth. Now, prosecutors claim that Haynesworth’s lawyer has offered the alleged victim money to drop the case.
“Just not true,” lawyer A. Scott Bolden told the AP by phone.
The issue has become relevant because prosecutors want to introduce evidence of the offers made by Haynesworth’s attorney if the judge presiding over the case allows Haynesworth’s attorney to introduce evidence of the alleged payment offered to the witness.
But the allegations of offers of money to a neutral witness are far more troubling. It’s not uncommon, or improper, for offers of settlement to be made to the alleged victims of criminal conduct, especially since those persons also have civil claims that could, and often are, advanced separately in court. And if the alleged victim suddenly has no desire to cooperate with a criminal prosecution, the prosecution suddenly becomes far less potent.
Either way, the judge needs to make a decision soon on whether the evidence will be admitted at trial. Trial is set for Tuesday, August 23.
On Thursday, a Buffalo-centric website created a stir with a report that authorities at the Canada-U.S. border found steroids in the possession of Bills linebacker Shawne Merriman.
Merriman took to Twitter last night to deny the allegation. He provided more details to theBuffalo News.
“No problem,” Merriman said. “I came across as I normally do. I go there to get some massage therapy work done. They just questioned me about some bags and stuff I had. I was stopped and that was it. I was coming to camp. I had suitcases and stuff like that. They just wanted to go through all my stuff.”
He said nothing was confiscated. “I had stuff coming to camp,” Merriman said. “They went through all my suitcases and that was it.”
And that apparently will be the end of the story. Government officials had nothing to report, according to the Buffalo News. There’s no prosecution, and Thomas Russert of the U.S. Border Patrol (I’ve got a sawbuck that says the guy is related to Luke) said that, unless there’s an arrest or criminal charges, no other information can be released.
Of course, that leaves a donut hole into which the BuffaloSportsDaily.com report theoretically can fit. Per the original report, Merriman wasn’t arrested or charged. And if no information will be released by U.S. Border Patrol unless someone is arrested or charged, we’ll never know with certainty what was or wasn’t found in Merriman’s possession.
That said, one of the fundamental assumptions of the BuffaloSportsDaily.com report is deeply flawed. “He was not arrested and booked because from what I’m told,” the report states, “simply being in the possession of the substance is not technically illegal.”
The problem is that possession of steroids is illegal, absent a valid medical prescription. (Indeed, if Raiders receiver Louis Murphy can be busted forpossessing Viagra without a prescription, Merriman can be busted for having steroids without a prescription.)
And so the absence of an arrest means that Merriman wasn’t in possession of steroids.
