Titans, CJ Finally Reach Agreement

This was a long time coming. The Titans and Chris Johnson finally agreed on a deal that will make sure Johnson reports to training camp, which let's be honest is all we really care about as Titans fans.

The two sides have left people wondering all summer long but finally we can breathe a sigh of relief and get ready for the upcoming season.

Johnson increased his pay by about $2 million for next season. He was only due to get $550,000 before the holdout got underway. In that sense Johnson should look at this as a victory and now it's time to focus on football and not the dollar sign.

The Titans offense looks promising next season if Johnson can even play half of the way he did last season. The receivers will be more experienced and hopefully Vince Young can finally get his act together.

Ever since Steve McNair departed from the team it has seemed that the quarterback position has plagued this team from going anywhere far.

People should just be careful as to where they put their expectations for Johnson next season. I'm guessing he'll put up anywhere in the ballpark of 1,200 to 1,500 yards, but anyone who thinks he'll get more may be putting the bar a little too high.

Defenses always figure out ways to adjust to running styles. Don't get me wrong. Johnson will be his explosive self and he'll win a few games for the Titans, but other Titans players will need to step up as well if this team is going to reach the postseason.

Tiger Woods Owes Roethlisberger A Hardy Handshake

For a good two or three months Tiger Woods and his extra curricular activities dominated the air waves. Even CNN couldn't get enough of Tiger.

It's crazy how fast things can change. Now it's Ben Roethlisberger that is being discussed every time you turn on a sports channel.

Roethlisberger brought this all on himself by doing what usually leads to trouble for every professional athlete. He was hanging around a bar somewhere in Georgia, having drinks, and flirting with girls he has no business flirting with.

I hate to use a cliche but it works so well for this situation. You play with fire and you're going to get burnt.

This whole situation with Roethlisberger has made us virtually forget all about Tiger Woods and his affairs which are far from over.

It has to feel a lot better for Tiger knowing that he's not the focal point of every sportscast right now.

Nothing really surprises me anymore when it comes to athletes getting into these kinds of messes.

For some reason it is so difficult for these professional athletes, and celebrities in general, to stay out of trouble.

Roethlisberger may be completely innocent of the charges that were brough against him, but he still should have never been in that situation. He knows the NFL's conduct policy and he obvioulsy failed to follow it.

In the end Tiger Woods will bounce back way faster than Roethlisberger will. Roethlisberger has the weight of an entire organization bearing down on him to make things right again.

Tiger is going through much of the same thing, but at least he plays for himself on the golf course and doesn't have teammates to answer to. We also already know that Tiger is still one of the best golfers in the world despite everything that happened. He proved that by finishing fourth at the Masters.

On the other hand Roethilisberger will continue to be grilled by the media all the way up until the start of next season, and somewhere in a quiet room Tiger Woods has a modest grin because of it.

McNabb to Oakland?

Perhaps what will end up being the biggest story for the entire offseason just got a head of steam with the possibility of Donovan McNabb going to the Raiders.

This could end up being a lose-lose situation for both McNabb and the Eagles if they decide to part ways.

As for McNabb, his time is quickly running out on winning a Super Bowl ring and Oakland is nowhere close to the kind of team that will get him that illusive first ring. In fact, they're not a even a wild card team with the services of McNabb.

McNabb is kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place. He can either go to one of the worst NFL teams of the past five seasons or he can stay with an organization that doesn't give him nearly the respect he deserves after all he's done for them.

Oakland is a bad team no matter who is running the quarterback position. Their offensive line is horrible, their running game is average at best, and their defense has also declined over the past couple of seasons.

Having McNabb at quarterback just makes them slightly less crappy. Clearly the Raiders are ready to part ways with Jamarcus Russell, which I can't blame them for.

I guess Bruce Gradkowski just wasn't impressive enough in his relief efforts of Russell last season, but he'll find a backup role somewhere else.

At the same time, the Eagles are taking a huge risk by settling for Kevin Kolb at quarterback. Kolb only has two starts under his belt so who knows how he will hold up for an entire season.

This shouldn't be too much of a shocker, however. These kinds of things eventually happen to almost every quarterback. Joe Montana and Brett Favre didn't end with the teams that made them superstars either.

You can't blame McNabb for wanting out of Philadelphia. He's been greatly under appreciated for much of his career there. The fact is McNabb is one of the better quarterbacks of the last decade. He's always stayed out of trouble off the field and put up very respectable numbers on the field. He knows Andy Ried's offense like the back of his hand.

Most of these fans won't realize what they're losing until halfway through next season when their team is sitting in the NFC East cellar behind even the Redskins.

The Raiders will realize what they have halfway through next season, but they have so many problems that even the second coming of Dan Marino or Steve Young wouldn't fix this team's abundance of problems.

Where's the T.O. Show Stopping Next?

The soap opera that is Terrell Owens's career is far from coming to an end. Multiple teams are speculated to be interested in T.O.

The rumors are now swirling as to where Terrell Owens will be playing next season. We do know for sure it won't be a second season with the Buffalo Bills.

The two primary teams that are in speculation for looking at T.O. are the Ravens and the Bengals. Ochocinco has already publicly expressed his desire and confidence that T.O. will be a Bengal next season.

That's an interesting thought. I actually think it would be a good fit for T.O. All of his critics want to continue to dwell on the past and think that he will go back to his old troubling days.

I think T.O. has changed his ways for good. He showed that last season. The media likes to back T.O. into a corner sometimes to get him to go into one of his infamous rants and last season he didn't take the bait.

The next destination for T.O. is most likely Baltimore, which is also a great fit. I don't think it's better than the Bengals situation because with the Ravens T.O. would have to be the primary target and I'm not so sure he's good enough to play that role anymore.

With the Bengals he could be the second option behind Ochocinco but would still get plenty of touches thanks to a pretty average group of receivers.

However, the quarterback situation is much better in Baltimore than in Cincinnati. Carson Palmer has lost a step or two in the past couple of seasons and Joe Flacco is clearly on the rise.

Both teams offer great opportunities for T.O. to end his career in a respectful fashion, so let's see if the T.O. show has a happy ending.

Chris Johnson To Possibly Race Usain Bolt?

One things is for sure, Chris Johnson is the fastest man in the NFL. He's also only the sixth player in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards in a season. With that said, is he faster than the world's fastest man, Usain Bolt?

That question may be answered in the near future.

This is all speculation, but sources close to both men are saying that talks are being made to set up a race between the two speed demons. The proceeds of the event would go straight to charity which is always a good thing.

This seems similar to the possibility of Shaq fighting that giant Korean guy that knocked out Jose Canseco a while back ago. Everyone was excited about that back over the summer and it never happened. Unfortunately, this probably won't happen either.

The problem here is that Bolt doesn't come off as the type of guy that's going to do some big publicity stunt that could distract him from his own sport. It would be extremely fun to watch, but the risk of being injured for both men is not worth it.

Bolt's agent has already went on record of saying that Bolt wouldn't do this. Bolt has a strict schedule to follow and doesn't even really follow the NFL.

If the two were to race, Bolt supporters have said he would prefer a longer race. As much as I love Johnson, I think Bolt would beat him pretty convincingly thanks to that freakishly long stride he has. The shorter the race, the more it would probably benefit Johnson because he does accelerate faster than anyone I have ever seen.

This isn't the first time that the possibility of Johnson racing an athlete from another sport has come up. Just a little over a month ago rumors boiled up about Rajon Rondo of the Boston Celtics challenging Johnson to a race. Johnson said it would be easy money, and he's probably right.

This is a fun water cooler story, but I'm sad to say that Bolt has bigger fish to fry than Chris Johnson.

LeBron as an NFL Tight End?

There's no denying it anymore. LeBron James is one of the best, if not the best basketball player in the world. So just how good would he be in the NFL?

Apparently LeBron is already thinking that over. He recently said that if he put the time and effort into playing football then he could be a good player in the NFL.

This same scenario was brought up to Browns coach Eric Mangini and he said he would welcome LeBron to play for arguably the worst team in the NFL.

A handful of pro athletes have played multiple sports before but none have ever really had much success. Deion Sanders probably had the most success by going from football to baseball.

LeBron was an all-state football player in high school and it's definitely not crazy to think that he could be a good player in the NFL if he put his full effort into it. Think about how nice it would be as a quarterback to have the 6'8'' LeBron James to throw to down the middle. He'd be one of the bigger tight ends in the league.

This probably will never come close to actually becoming reality, but it's still fun to think of LeBron James showing up in the box score on NFL Live.

Not So Fast Mr. Limbaugh

A near disaster was averted today as a group of investors bidding to buy the St. Louis Rams dropped the controversial conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh from their group.

This is great news to say the least.

If Limbaugh would have became a minority owner of the Rams, do you realize the negative implications that would have meant for the Rams organization and the NFL as a whole.

The NFL is made up largely of minorities, mostly being African Americans. How are these minorities playing for the Rams suppose to feel if one of their owners has nothing but hateful things to say about them? I know I wouldn't like working for someone who had ignorant views of myself and I wouldn't expect them to either.

Of course Limbaugh blasted out more rhetoric on his show this morning about how this is another example of President Obama's America. Get off your high horse, Rush.

The NFL did the right thing here by not allowing this guy to pollute the NFL with his horrible outlook on people who are different than him.

We're talking about a guy that once referred to the NFL as "a game between the Bloods and the Cripps without any weapons". Really? So you're grouping an entire class of hard working NFL players as gang members now. And this trash pollutes the air waves every morning and conservatives eat it up like candy.

Well Rush, have fun with your radio show because that's about all you can get these days. ESPN definitely didn't want you when they dropped you in 2003 for making degrading comments about Donovan McNabb, and apparently the NFL doesn't want you either.

Brett Un-Retires...Again

Just when you thought Brett Favre was finally going to sail gracefully into the sunset he once again pulls a 180 on the sports world.

It's only been a few weeks since Favre confirmed that he wouldn't return to play for the Vikings because he was worried about his body being able to sustain a full NFL season. I guess Favre's physical condition magically got better in a matter of weeks.

The rumor first broke out on Monday when a few anonymous Vikings players said that Favre was close to signing with the team. Now there are numerous reports confirming that Favre is expected to sign a deal anywhere between $10 to $12 million by the end of today.

As much as I am completely sick of hearing about Brett Favre's comeback, he probably couldn't have picked a better team to come back to.

Favre is coming back to a team that has a great run defense, the NFL's best running back in Adrian Peterson, and a very winnable division in the NFC North.

There is a very great chance that we'll see Brett Favre in the playoffs again. In fact, I'll make it a guarantee he returns to the playoffs as long as he avoids injury.

Even though Thomas Jones had a solid year for the Jets last season, he's still no Adrian Peterson. Favre will benefit greatly from having such a high caliber running back lining up behind him.

Favre is now going to have one of the best teams that's been around him in a long time. Even better than the Packers team that went to the NFC championship game just two seasons ago.

Not only did Favre choose the right team to come back to, but he also manipulated the system by skipping out on training camp.

By telling the media the white lie that his body couldn't make it through a full season, he bought himself some time to skip training camp.

Favre has been in the league for 18 years so the last thing he wanted to do was stay in a cramped up dorm room with a bunch of rookies and undrafted free agents.

This is where I think Favre has truly lost his heroic persona that he once had when he was a Packer.

As much as Favre himself probably doesn't need training camp, he could've used training camp as an opportunity for his teammates to become accustomed to their new quarterback.

I can only imagine how turbulent this has been for Tavaris Jackson and Sage Rosenfels. Most people probably can imagine, but somewhere in Green Bay right now Aaron Rogers is nodding his head saying, "Yep, I know how you guys feel".

Hey Favre, It's Really Getting Old

When Brett Favre came back to the NFL and played for the Jets, I couldn't blame him that much.

It's understandable for a player to second guess his retirement, and get that desire to put back on the uniform and go do battle on Sundays. However, this whole saga with Brett Favre being "conflicted" about whether to come back or not is so beyond ridiculous that I've lost a ton of respect for him.

It wasn't enough that Favre held the Packers organization hostage two years ago, but now he's doing it again to ironically the Vikings.

Vikings training camp is just a week away and Favre still hasn't confirmed whether he wants to come back or not. He's basically blackballing the Vikings organization because he knows they desperately need a quarterback and that they'll wait for him even if it's a day before the first game.

Can you imagine how the other quarterbacks must feel, especially Tavaris Jackson who will likely be the starter if Favre doesn't come back.

If Favre does come back, Jackson and the other quarterbacks can kiss a competition for starter goodbye, because Favre will be the starter.

Many of the Vikings players have even told ESPN reporter Rachel Nichols that they want Favre to return, but that they should have had an answer by now and they're ready to move forward.

I hate to break it to you, Brett, but the NFL doesn't revolve around you and neither should the Vikings. You're past your prime and you're no longer even a top five quarterback. You need to bow out gracefully, if that's even salvageable at this point.

Michael Vick Set for Release Tomorrow

Michael Vick has finally come to the end of his "debt to society", but now even more question are swirling about what his future holds for him.

We know he's already had talks with former Super Bowl winning coach Tony Dungy while in prison, and Roger Gooddell has said he will reinstate Vick to the NFL only if he shows true remorse for his crimes. That seems like a gray area for me. What if Vick is just a good liar?

Either way, Vick will most likely find his way back into the league in two years at the most. There's at least three or four teams who will take a chance on him. Here's my potential teams that may show some interest and might be able to use him:

1. Miami Dolphins: We all know about the "wildcat" offense the Dolphins ran last season. If they could somehow figure out a way to implement Vick into this offense that showed a lot of success last season, then Vick could greatly improve this offense.
   
2. San Francisco 49ers: The Niners are extremely weak at the quarterback position and after some conditioning and hard practice to get his mechanics back, Vick would be an improvement to this team's quarterback situation. Not to mention this team already has some great targets for Vick with Vernon Davis, Arnaz Battle, Isaac Bruce, and Michael Crabtree.
3. Oakland Raiders: When you have an owner like Al Davis anything is possible. Besides, it's not like their quarterback situation is too great. Al Davis has taken big chances on quarterbacks in the past. Daunte Culpepper is a good example here. It's still a long shot of this happening since they have Jeff Garcia now.
4. Dallas Cowboys: You can never count the Cowboys out of making a blockbuster acquisition. Once again, the crazy owner comes into play here. Unless Vick would be satisfied with being a backup to Tony Romo, however, then this will definitely not happen.
   

Minnesota Vikings!! Come on Down...You're The Next Contestant on the Brett Favre Show!!

The media is once again salivating over the Brett Favre saga. Now the Minnesota Vikings want to throw their hat in the ring.

Vikings coach Brad Childress reportedly plans to meet with Favre to discuss Favre's return to the NFL. In a way this story surprises me and in a way it doesn't. I've learned to expect the unexpected regarding this entire situation.

Being a long-time Green Bay Packer fan, it killed me seeing Favre run out of the tunnel in Gang Green last season. As much as it hurt me, I knew Favre still had the itch to play and that he deserved another shot at getting his second Super Bowl ring.

However, Favre no longer seems to be the blue-collar, laid back guy we all thought he was in Green Bay. Last season Favre came off as arrogant and victimized himself in the Green Bay situation when he was clearly the one who couldn't make his mind up over his "retirement".

Not only did he crumble down the stretch had have one of his worst seasons in his storied career, but he also created discomfort in the Jets locker room. Just ask Eric Mangini and Thomas Jones.

Favre obviously has a powerful addiction to playing football, and I'm not criticizing him for that. Many superstars have done this toward the end of their careers like Michael Jordan to the Wizards, Joe Namath to the Rams, and Joe Montana to the Chiefs. If he wants to play, let him play. If anyone has earned it, it's definitely Favre.

But can the Vikings really afford to make this gamble? It's a high risk, high reward proposition for them. You're only going to get Favre for a couple of seasons at the most and can Favre really carry this team to the Super Bowl?

With all due respect to Favre, he's only been to the Super Bowl twice and has had much better talent around him in his career than he will if he plays with the Vikings. Favre turns the Vikings into the New York Jets of last season. They'll show promise early one but crumble down the stretch. The Packers and the Bears have gotten better this offseason so the Vikings should probably get comfortable down in the NFL North cellar with the Lions.

The Vikings are better off sticking with Tavaris Jackson. His accuracy has gotten a lot better since his rookie season and he's a legitimate runner. As odd as this will sound, Jackson is on the rise and Favre is getting older and older.

It pains me to say this because I truly think Favre is one of the best quarterbacks of all-time, but his time came and gone when he took off that Packer uniform in the playoffs.

If Favre does come back to the Vikings, their first game is against Eric Mangini's Browns. If that's not intriguing then I don't know what is. And of course, the bone-chilling scene of watching Brett Favre trot onto Lambeau Field wearing purple and gold. Now that's just down right creepy.

Brett Favre's Stats Last Four Seasons

2008 22 Td, 22 Int, 3,142 yds, 81 QB rating (w/ Jets)
2007 28 Td, 15 Int, 4,155 yds, 95.7 QB rating
2006 18 Td, 18 Int, 3,885 yds, 72.7 QB rating
2005 20 Td, 29 Int, 3,881 yds, 70.9 QB rating

Cutler Fed Up With Denver and Wants Out

The Cutler fiasco has finally reached the point of no return. Cutler wants out of Denver and numerous teams are ready to make an offer for him.

The problem for Denver is, no matter what comes out of it, they're going to be worse off than they were with Cutler. Of the several possible teams that want Cutler, none of them have anything better than Cutler to offer. Here's some of the possibilities:

• Cleveland- Derek Anderson/Brady Quinn


• San Francisco- Shaun Hill


• New York Jets-Kellen Clemens


• Detroit- Daunte Culpepper

Of these four teams, Cutler's best fit would seem to be the Jets. The Jets have already proven what they're capable of with a gun-slinger type quarterback (Brett Favre). Their defense improved tremendously last season, and Cutler would have a more balanced offesne to work with.

However, the Broncos most likely are not going to trade him to an AFC team where Cutler can hurt them down the road. I could realistically see the Lions dealing their #1 pick and maybe another draft pick to get Cutler.

It's hard to pin-down the exact team Cutler will go to because there are so many teams that need a quarterback right now, but I'm positive it will be an NFC team.

Either way, the Broncos are in trouble. Their defense is horrendous. They have no running game, and their biggest offensive threats in Eddie Royal and Brandon Marshall now have no quarterback to get them the ball.

The only positive for Denver is that they play in the worst division in the NFL and where even a BAD team can win the division and earn a first-round playoff exit. Congrats Denver!