NFL players could learn a lot from watching Olympic hockey

Though we remain fully and completely dedicated to pro football, the single greatest athletic endeavor on the planet, we’ve long had a soft spot for a game that is far harder to play.

And as we discussed last night with Peter Brown of Sporting News Radio, there’s something pure and admirable in the dedication that hockey players have for their chosen sport.  After watching the American upset of Canada’s national team, a game for which the players will not receive a dime of salary, we’re now convinced that most if not all of the men who play hockey for money would play the game even if they were being paid nothing.

How many pro football players would do that?

We’re not saying they should.  The men who play pro football (and pro hockey) entertain millions of people, and the players deserve to reap as much of the reward as anyone, especially since they are compromising their future quality of life. 

We now hear a lot about the plight of the Conrad Doblers of the world, and the topic had been ignored for far too long.  But plenty of hockey players have similar problems in their later years.  When my brother-in-law and I went to a Rangers-Penguins playoff game in May 2008, there was a former Pittsburgh player sitting at the end of our row (we were the only two people in the section who didn’t know who he was), and we cringed as we watched him hobble out of Mellon Arena on a leg that would not longer bend at the knee.

Though it’s assumed that football exerts the biggest physical toll on its participants, NHL players don flimsy motorcycle-style helmets with little or no face protection and attach oversized steak knives to their feet 82 times per year.  Then comes a grueling playoff season, with up to 28 more games — a few of which feature from time to time another entire game’s worth of overtime action. 

Remember all the complaints about Astroturf?  As hard as it might have been, it ain’t as hard as ice.

Then there are the flimsy pads and the sticks and the boards and the glass and the steel goal assembly and the small black missile that only gets more lethal when it’s frozen solid — and that any of them would throw their bodies in front of, even in an exhibition game.

Are you reading this, Antonio Cromartie?

Our point isn’t that football players should be willing to play for little or no money or that football players aren’t as tough as hockey players.  It’s that more football players should have the kind of genuine love for their game that every hockey player seems to possess. 

As scouts and coaches begin to gather in Indianapolis to pick over the next crop of would-be gridiron greats, they’re all searching for men with true passion for football.  The NFL teams that accumulate the most of them will be in the best position to achieve year-in and year-out success.

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With all due respect to the San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks, Chicago Bears and others, Cleveland Browns rookie linebacker Barkevious Mingo believes the Cleveland Browns could have the best defensive unit in the league this season.

According to Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Mingo believes the Browns have the pieces in place to be among the league’s best.

“If everything is going well, I think this defense could be the best in the league,” Mingo said.

“We have a lot of players that can contribute and help this team win. We’ve got a lot of rushers. We’ve got corners on the back-end. We’ve got D-linemen that can hold those blocks and get off and make plays. We’ve got linebackers that can come up and tackle the run and get back in coverage as well. So we have a lot of tools that we can use.”

It would be a pretty significant climb from where the Browns finished in 2012. Cleveland was ranked 23rd in the league last season in total defense and 19th in points allowed.

The Browns do have some strong pieces on the defensive side of the ball and the potential to be especially strong in the front seven. Joe Haden has Pro Bowl potential at corner and the addition of defensive coordinator Ray Horton could help solidify the group as a whole.

Still, it seems a little premature for anyone, let alone a rookie, to claim the Browns belong in that conversation. The potential could be there, but they’ll have to prove they belong to be considered one of the league’s best defenses this fall.

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Last month, former NFL agent Benjamin Geller was charged with one count of wire fraud.  This month, Geller pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud.

According to the New Orleans Times Picayune, the guilty plea came on Friday in federal court.  Geller was accused of spending roughly $500,000 in life insurance proceeds generated by the death of former Saints defensive lineman Frank Warren, who passed in 2002.

Geller was wiring diminished payments to Warren’s family, keeping the rest.  Suspicions first arose in 2009.

Sentencing is set for September 12, at which time Geller faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.  The decision to accept responsibility absent a trial should help Geller receive a more favorable punishment.

In time, that revolutionary new stadium to be built in Minnesota will look downright boring.

NFL teams are realizing that one way to get fans to choose attending games over watching them at home will be to play the games in compelling structures that make fans want to be there, regardless of how good or bad the home team is.

The new Vikings stadium becomes the first to incorporate an Olympics-style ingenuity.  The new Falcons stadium will take it to a new level.

On Tuesday, the Falcons announced that the “conceptual design” of the stadium has been “completed and approved.”  And the “conceptual design” that has been selected has the look of a futuristic change purse.

A Falcons spokesman tells PFT that this isn’t the final design, but that there’s a “pretty good chance” the finished product will closely resemble the concept.

If the “Change Purse” comes to fruition, designers of future structures will have their work cut out for them, as the stadium arms race expands from giant HD video screens and high-speed Internet access to include stunning designs that will make the cars line up even deeper than they did for Kevin Costner’s corn field in Iowa.

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With some uncertainty still surrounding their middle linebacker position, the Minnesota Vikings are bringing in recently released linebacker Desmond Bishop for a visit on Wednesday.

The Vikings have planned on shifting Erin Henderson inside this offseason to serve as their starter after primarily serving on the outside during his time in Minnesota. But Henderson doesn’t feel there should be any uncertainty whatsoever. He has no doubts he will be the Vikings starting middle linebacker.

“I’m playing the Mike,” Henderson said, via Judd Zulgad of 1500ESPN.com.

It’s just another possible replacement for Henderson that has cropped up this offseason. Manti Te’o, Brian Urlacher and now Bishop have all been considered as options to fill the Vikings middle linebacker role. It’s actually angered Henderson to have to continually hear about guys who will be taking a job he firmly sees as being his.

Henderson isn’t opposed to the Vikings signing Bishop if he can add to the talent at the position. He just had no intentions of letting Bishop, or anyone else, take his starting job.

“I have a chance to play Mike now, I don’t see why I would let it slip out of my hands or let it go any other way,” Henderson said. “So, that’s what my mindset is and that’s what I’m thinking.”

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Jets.  Four letters.  Four heads on Mt. Rushmore.

None will be wearing the headgear of a firefighter.

But 12 finalists other than Fireman Ed have been identified.  Vote for up to four from the list of finalists appearing below.

The winners will be announced on Thursday’s Pro Football Talk on NBCSN, the same day the Patriots’ Mt. Rushmore will be announced.

Coincidentally, the butt fumble happened on a Thursday.

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If the NFL plans to make the process of cutting players more “humane,” that dose of humanity won’t come from a kinder, gentler Hard Knocks.

The executive producer of the show has told SiriusXM NFL Radio that scenes of players being cut won’t be cut from the upcoming season.

“How we’re going to handle it is show exactly how they handle it,” Ross Ketover told Jim Miller and Alex Marvez.  “If it’s kind, we’re going to show it.  If it’s harsh, we’re going to show that, too.”

This could mean that the league office will suggest that the Bengals use a softer approach.  Softer, say, than the scene from the last time the Bengals were the subject of the series, when former Bengals director of football operations Jim Lippincott dumped fullback J.D. Runnels in a manner that Ketover admits was “pretty harsh.”

Still, there’s only so much that can be done to change the way teams reduce from up to 90 players down to 53.

“There is no easy way to release players,” coach Marvin Lewis told Marvez via text message. “It’s always easier early in the morning so they don’t have to face their peers.  Generally, this is done around the breakfast hour.  Otherwise, it’s more awkward.

“It is the end to a chapter here but hopefully not to their career.”

Though every meeting with every player who is cut includes some sort of encouragement or advice suggesting that the glass is half full, plenty of these guys just don’t have what it takes to make it at the NFL level.  At some point, the most humane approach entails telling them that it’s time to find something else to do.

After the cameras are off, of course.

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The vast bulk of the pro football apparel of my childhood has long been discarded or boxed away, but what NFL fans and personnel wear still continues to interest me.

It’s nostalgia, I suppose. I associate the team apparel of the 1980s and 1990s with my formative years watching and learning the game.

I remember getting a Seahawks rain poncho ordered out of the Sears catalog as a gift, buying an Los Angeles Rams Starter snapback cap at a little mall sports store long gone. When I watch NFL Films highlights, I note the fashion of the day, how the uniforms have changed, what brand of jackets the coaches wore on the sidelines.

The Boston Globe published an interesting feature Tuesday about the current state of NFL merchandising. As you might imagine, the business of team apparel is big business.

Of particular note: league-approved vendors are already readying merchandise for 2014.

“The sports apparel industry has become exponentially more strategic and sophisticated,” Marty Brochstein, senior vice president for industry relations and information for the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association, told the Globe.

Another tidbit that intrigued me: per the Globe, the NFL requires Nike to have enough blank jerseys on hand to meet demand in the event a player becomes especially popular. As the Globe noted, Colin Kaepernick’s 49ers jersey is one that quickly became a big-seller.

So who emerges to become a jersey-selling star this year?

I’m very intrigued by the Jets’ Geno Smith. Here’s why: if he wins the starting job and the Jets start well, his replica jerseys are going to sell very, very well in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area.

After all, it’s not as if the Tim Tebow green replicas are in style these days.

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The 49ers waived Brandon Carswell with an injury designation on Tuesday, the NFL disclosed in its transaction log.

The 24-year-old Carswell suffered an ACL tear last Wednesday, the same day he signed with the club.

Carswell, who played collegiately at Southern Cal, had a brief stint on the Raiders’ practice squad a season ago.

The 49ers now have 11 wide receivers on their roster, including Michael Crabtree, who figures to miss at least a portion of the 2013 campaign after tearing his Achilles in May.

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Fantasy football players continue to be fascinated with Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew. But when if comes to figuring out the most important contributors to the franchise, Jones-Drew must yield to his predecessor, Fred Taylor.

It’s Taylor, who retired at No. 15 on the all-time rushing list, who trumps Jones-Drew as the most accomplished running back in franchise history.

Joining Taylor on the team’s Mt. Rushmore are quarterback Mark Brunell, receiver Jimmy Smith, and coach Tom Coughlin.

PFT Planet replaced Coughlin with left tackle Tony Boselli.

See the Boselli-Coughlin debate and the outcome of the voting by watching the segment from Pro Football Talk on NBCSN.

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The Aaron Hernandez situation remains fluid and confusing.  Both SI.com and ABC now report that police are searching Hernandez’s North Attleboro home.

The investigation was sparked by the discovery of the body of a Hernandez “associate” in the vicinity of a car rented to Hernandez, roughly a mile from his residence.

According to ABC, a pair of Hernandez’s friends tried to leave the home during the search, but were stopped by police at the end of the driveway leading to the structure.  Per SI.com, both were taken away by police, but not handcuffed.

The Patriots, who don’t usually say much of anything, have remained true to form.

“I am aware of the reports, but I do not anticipate that we will be commenting publicly during an ongoing police investigation,” Patriots spokesman Stacey James said in a statement forward to PFT.

Hernandez repeatedly has been described as not a suspect, but it’s unusual to say the least that the home of someone who isn’t suspected of committing a crime would be searched — especially in light of the Constitutional protection against unreasonable police searches.

That’s the key fact here.  Even though there currently is no reason to believe Hernandez committed a crime, the authorities were able to persuade a judge that the house potentially contains something that would help find the killer.

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As MDS mentioned earlier in the hour, Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez finds himself in the middle of an investigation regarding the death of a man described as a Hernandez “associate.”

The situation, which is extremely fluid, already has spawned inconsistent accounts.  For example, SI reports that Hernandez has been questioned, while ABC reports that investigators plan to interview him.  Likewise, SI reports that police may seek to search Hernandez’s home; ABC reports that police are indeed seeking a search warrant.

Per ABC, Hernandez has been “uncooperative.”

Reporters in Boston have been buzzing all afternoon regarding the situation.  The team has not responded to a PFT email seeking comment, and folks close to Hernandez are saying nothing, given the gravity of the situation.

There’s still no evidence that Hernandez is or will be a suspect.  Given that the the body was found in the vicinity of a car that, per SI, was rented in Hernandez’s name, a level of stupidity on par with Jesse Pinkman would be necessary to result in Hernandez actually being involved.

Then again, even Jesse Pinkman would know that it’s a good idea to be cooperative with police when there’s no reason to not be.

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The Colts’ 2013 training camp practices will begin on Sunday, July 28, owner Jim Irsay said Tuesday on Twitter.

Colts camp will be held at Anderson University in Anderson, Indiana. Anderson is a little more than 40 miles northeast of Indianapolis.

Per the CBA between owners and players, the earliest the Colts’ veteran players can report to camp is Saturday, July 27, or 15 days before the Colts’ preseason opener against Buffalo on Monday, August 11. Rookies, injured players and quarterbacks are allowed to report sooner.

The Colts are holding training camp in Anderson for the fourth consecutive summer.

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Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez has reportedly been questioned in a homicide investigation, although he is not considered a suspect.

Sports Illustrated reports that Hernandez was questioned by police investigating a possible homicide in North Attleboro, Massachusetts. The report says police talked to Hernandez on Monday and may seek to search his home as well. But the report adds that “Hernandez is not believed to be a murder suspect.”

The Sun Chronicle, a local newspaper in North Attleboro, reports that a 27-year-old Boston man’s body was found on Monday afternoon and may have been there for more than a day. That report said police found a 2013 Chevrolet Suburban registered to Enterprise car rental, and that police believe the car is connected to the homicide. The Sports Illustrated report indicates that the car was rented in Hernandez’s name.

Hernandez, his agents and his lawyer have all declined to comment publicly on the case.

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When the annual NFL rookie symposium kicks off on Sunday, sexual orientation will be among the topics addressed.

Robert Gulliver, the NFL’s chief human resource officer, told ESPN that discussing issues of sexual orientation with incoming rookies will be a step toward the NFL’s goal of having a harassment-free work place.

The ESPN report says this will be the first time that sexual orientation has been addressed at the symposium, but that is not correct: At the 2006 symposium, openly gay ex-NFL player Esera Tuaolo spoke. Unfortunately, that speech included an ugly incident in which a player raised his hand and asked Tuaolo, “Is it OK to call you a fa–ot if you are a fa–ot?”

We would hope that there aren’t any morons like that in this year’s rookie crop. And that if there is anyone who has those views, the message at the rookie symposium will be simple: Discrimination and harassment against people based on their sexual orientation will not be tolerated in the NFL.

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The Titans have a plan for their final minicamp of the spring, but they don’t have a script.

During their final three days of work before vacation and then training camp, the Titans are working without a scripted set of plays in practice, which head coach Mike Munchak said was more for the benefit of his assistants as his players.

“That’s as good for the coaches as anybody, to make them have to think how to try to attack each other and not be able to pre-plan everything we are doing out here,” Munchak said, via Paul Kuharsky of ESPN.com. “Once we had everything installed, once we spent the first nine OTAs getting everything in and doing it at a teaching pace where we felt they had a good understanding, then to me this is the best thing we could do.

“You can’t tackle, this is as close as you get to playing real football, at least mentally. I just thought this would be a nice change for these couple days. Let it flow, let it happen and create some situations.”

That forced offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains and defensive coordinator Jerry Gray (unless assistant Gregg Williams was doing it) to work against each other, after establishing a rough plan for the day.

“Whatever you call, you call and the players have got to make their adjustments off of it,” Gray said before the practice started. “So we’re really going through a bunch of game-type situations: You’re in two minute, you’re in four minute, you’re in goal line, it’s first-and-10. All they are going to do [on offense] is tell us personnel. Then we are going to treat it as a game, . . .

“Not only does it help me, it helps Dowell, it helps the head coach get a chance to see what we like to call in certain situations, and the players do too. You can script and say hey, ‘I can always have the pen last and win.’ You’ve got to make the call from what you are looking at, what you’re thinking, what’s that going to do to you, because that’s how the game is.”

The Titans have spent aggressively this offseason, but that only adds to the pressure on Munchak and the rest of the staff. So perhaps it’s fitting and smart that they add a little on themselves in the offseason, before the consequences are real.