Manning, Brady, Brees will be lead plaintiffs if players sue NFL

When NFL players sued the league in the early 1990s, leading to the free agency they have today, they chose one of the best and most respected players in football to lead the charge: Reggie White.

Nearly two decades later, the players have decided that if they decertify as a union and take the owners to court again, they’ll choose three of their best and most respected players to lead the charge: Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Drew Brees.

According to multiple reports, the players’ side has decided that the three star quarterbacks with five Super Bowl rings among them should be the names attached to their lawsuit, if they decertify and go to court.

Choosing three well-known, well-liked, well-respected players to serve as the public faces of the players’ side is an obvious decision — even if choosing three well-paid players will make it tougher for this battle to shed the “millionaires vs. billionaires” label that the players don’t like.

That may be why Patriots guard Logan Mankins has also agreed to be named a plaintiff in the pending antitrust action if the union decertifies, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter: Mankins is an example of a player who, as a free agent with five years of experience, got the short end of the stick in 2010. Mankins’ agent recently called his treatment “a travesty.”

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In New York, the player who wins the starting quarterback job in 2013 arguably will be the first guy to possibly lose it.  If so, his window for losing it could open weeks before Week One.

According to Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News, the Jets could declare a starter before the start of training camp.

“We don’t care what the prevailing thought is,” offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg told Mehta regarding the view that the fight won’t be resolved before the start of camp. “We only care about our competition here.”

Well, if they care about competition, the competition will continue into the more inherently competitive portions of the calendar.  For now, practices occur without pads and limited contact.  In training camp, it’s closer to real football.  In preseason games, it’s considerably closer.

This approach suggests that the Jets would like to go with Geno Smith, and that they prefer to spend July and August getting him ready in lieu of making him fight for a job he’s already destined to have.

“When you [compete in training camp],” Mornhinweg said, “you give up some reps individually for the possible starter if you don’t select him quite as quickly.”

Either way, Mornhinweg hasn’t made a commitment to how and when the competition will be resolved.  Essentially, they’ll know it when they see it.

“Once a man separates himself, then we’ll think about making those choices, but I want a man to separate himself,” Mornhinweg said. “If not, we’ll keep the competition grinding.  That’s important.  That’s important in this situation.”

What’s ultimately important is finding the best guy to win games, because it’s believed that another bad year from the Jets will get the entire coaching staff fired.

Which will serve only to put more pressure on whoever the quarterback is.

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While there seems to be a general feeling of optimism regarding Victor Cruz and a long-term deal with the Giants — which has been the case for some time — there’s still nothing to put on paper between the Giants and their wide receiver.

But I suppose optimism beats the alternative.

Giants chairman Steve Tisch was the latest to express confidence a deal will be signed, but didn’t have much more than that.

“We’re talking,” Tisch said, via Mike Garafolo of USA Today. “Tom Condon [Cruz's agent] is talking to [Giants General Manager] Jerry [Reese] and I’m personally confident that Victor wants to be a Giant, will be a Giant.

“He’s a great guy. It’s just taking its time.”

Now, as tempting as it might be to take “will be a Giant,” and turn it into more than it is, it would also be inaccurate. Tisch is saying what everyone else seems to say, that eventually something will get done.

We’ve reached the “do or do not,” phase of this story, and the negotiations seem to have slowed. And until somebody starts throwing money around, or the Giants replace Cruz’s restricted free agent tender of $2.879 million with a $594,000 offer (which would be antagonistic in a transaction that seems quite civil), the words don’t matter that much.

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The Ravens, one of the first teams to begin signing draft picks, have struck a deal with another rookie, announcing the signing outside linebacker John Simon on Tuesday.

Simon (6-2, 260) earned Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year honors as a senior at Ohio State in 2012, recording nine sacks. The Ravens selected him toward the end of the fourth round (No. 129 overall).

Simon, who was a defensive end in college, is likely to be a backup in his first NFL season at outside linebacker.

The Ravens have now agreed to deals with all seven of their rookies selected on the draft’s final day.

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In addition to players and head coaches, the Pro Football Hall of Fame has a catchall “contributor” category that allows people to be enshrined in Canton for what they did away from the field. But not many contributors actually ge elected.

Of the last 40 people enshrined in the Hall, only two of them — Bills owner Ralph Wilson and NFL Films founder Ed Sabol — were from the contributor category. Joe Horrigan, the Hall’s vice president of communications and exhibits, says the Hall would like to change the way it does business to make a clearer path for contributors.

“I can’t tell you we’re real close to a solution, but as we do every year, we do discuss the possibility,” Horrigan told Alex Marvez and Gil Brandt on SiriusXM NFL Radio. “We don’t want to have second-tier Hall of Famers in the sense someone snuck in the back door. That’s kind of the issue always. We continue to address it. Eventually, I think we’ll probably come up with some sort of a modification.”

Whatever the Hall of Fame does, it would be wise to separate contributors from players. The Hall of Fame Selection Committee is currently faced with the thankless task of comparing people like Steve Sabol of NFL Films or former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue with former players. And really, how do you determine whether Sabol is more deserving than an offensive lineman? Voting on contributors separately would make a lot of sense.

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The 32 NFL team owners voted today to lend the Falcons $200 million for their new stadium in Atlanta.

“Today’s approval by the NFL team owners is an important milestone in moving the new stadium project forward,” Falcons owner Arthur Blank said in a statement. “We are pleased with the outcome of today’s vote, and we look forward to continued progress in designing and constructing the new multi-purpose stadium over the next four years. We, along with our City of Atlanta and State of Georgia partners, are excited to participate in a project that will benefit the city and state for many years to come.”

Taxpayers will pick up $200 million of the cost of the stadium, and Blank will foot the bill for the rest. The total cost is expected to come in at around $1 billion.

The Falcons currently play in the Georgia Dome, which opened in 1992. Plans call for the Georgia Dome to be demolished and the new stadium to be ready to go by 2017.

As the NFL continues to try to make the Pro Bowl worth watching, the league is considering some ideas inspired by TV game shows.

Albert Breer of NFL Network reported that the league is considering elements that would make the game more like a game show, such as
having incentives paid out during the game. Breer said the league would like to “make it so every single minute of the game has some sort of thing that’s going to keep fans interested and engaged.”

Breer added that the NFL doesn’t “feel the need to keep the integrity of what a normal football game is.”

Personally, I think a good football game is more fun to watch than any game show, and I don’t think adding game show gimmicks to a football game makes the game more fun to watch. The problem I see with the Pro Bowl is that the players don’t take it seriously, and adding “game show” elements seems likely to compound that problem. I don’t have a problem with the NFL’s idea of naming two team captains and letting them pick the teams, but I don’t think we need to have Monty Hall telling Peyton Manning to pick a receiver behind one of two doors, only to find out that Calvin Johnson is behind Door No. 1 and Titus Young is behind Door No. 2.

If the NFL really wants to make the players play hard, the best “game show” element to incorporate would be large cash prizes for the winners. Currently, players on the winning Pro Bowl team make $50,000 and players on the losing team make $25,000. The difference between getting paid $25,000 and $50,000 is a lot to most of us, but it’s peanuts to most Pro Bowlers. Until that changes, don’t expect the players’ effort to change.

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PFT Live was supposed to make its return on Monday, but technical difficulties got in the way of what we hoped would be a smooth transition.

So we’re going to do it all over again on Tuesday. Mike Florio will check in with Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune about what’s going on with the Chargers. The big news is on the defensive side of the ball, where they didn’t waste any time signing longtime Colts pass rusher Dwight Freeney after losing linebacker Melvin Ingram to a knee injury. We’ll hear more about how the Chargers will use Freeney and see if there’s going to be a veteran left tackle like Max Starks joining him in the locker room.

Former Chiefs General Manager Scott Pioli will also be on hand to talk about the other big stories around the league as most of the 32 teams gear up for a week of OTAs.

You can watch it all live at noon ET.

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Later today, NFL owners will vote on the location for Super Bowl L.  (For those of you complaining about the use of the letter “L” to designate the 50th Super Bowl, do you forget that we’ve already endured a “Super Bowl XXX”?)  Then, the NFL owners will vote on the location for Super Bowl LI.

South Florida faces an uphill climb in both votes (one against San Franciscoclara, and then one against Houston, barring an upset win over San Franciscoclara) because the powers-that-be failed to secure public funding for upgrades at Sun Life Stadium.  The NFL’s “no Super Bowls without an improved stadium” threat/promise comes off as weak if the owners give South Florida a Super Bowl anyway.

One of the most influential owners believes that public money should have been used to renovate the stadium, even though he’s one of the only owners who built his stadium exclusively with private funds.

“If we’re doing Super Bowls, the community should pitch in,” Patriots owner Robert Kraft said, via Jarrett Bell of USA Today.

The point is that, when a city enters the Super Bowl rotation, the stadium becomes something more than the place where the local football team plays its games.  If the Super Bowl is coming to town once every five years (or, as it happened for Miami most recently, twice in the three-year window from February 2007 through February 2010), the stadium has a different level of value for the place where it’s located, because hosting a Super Bowl brings significant money and worldwide attention to the place where it is played.

Still, with the Marlins debacle and the current mood against what has been described persuasively as “welfare for billionaires,” the citizens and politicians have a hard time seeing the investment of public dollars as a benefit to the region.

Even if, you know, it is.

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It’s a good thing Texans linebacker Brooks Reed is healthy enough to work in OTAs, because he has some extra work to do.

According to Tania Ganguli of the Houston Chronicle, Reed is working inside, in case the Texans need him there this year.

“I’m not 100 percent switching positions, but I’m trying to learn another position,” Reed said. “It’s coming along. I’ve been in the playbook a lot, picking up little things. Cush [inside linebacker Brian Cushing] played the position, so I’m always asking him things. But I’ll get the hang of it.”

He’s a natural outside linebacker, though his production hasn’t been astounding (8.5 sacks in two seasons).

“We know that Brooks can line up outside and play tomorrow if we opened the season,” Texans coach Gary Kubiak said. “So we’re very concerned about getting him his reps inside from that standpoint.”

To move him inside would indicate they think one of their draft picks, either Sam Montgomery or Trevardo Williams, was ready to start opposite Whitney Mercilus.

Mercilus, last year’s first-rounder had 6.0 sacks as a reserve, but that’s a lot of faith to put on a lot of young guys.

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During the spring and summer of 2012, Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson was taking one-third of the first-team reps at Seahawks practices.

Things are very different this year. Tarvaris Jackson is in Buffalo, Matt Flynn is in Oakland and Wilson is the only man running with the starters during Seahawks workouts. That is going to mean a lot more snaps during practice and a high likelihood of improvement as Wilson spends more times at the controls of the team’s offense. According to coach Pete Carroll, that improvement is already readily apparent.

“He threw a couple of balls today, things that we talked about over the offseason that he’d like to take a shot at, and he did it today just to see what would happen with full awareness of why he was doing it,” Carroll said, via Eric Williams of the Tacoma News Tribune. “We were talking about trying to throw the deep ball last year over guys’ outside shoulder; we’re just a million miles ahead of where we were. He’s the kind of player that will affect other guys — he affects everyone around him — and hopefully that will help everyone play better and faster.”

Wilson agrees with his coach that he’s ahead of where he was last year, although he points out that the key is to keep improving. That’s an unknown at this point, obviously, but what we’ve seen from Wilson thus far makes it hard to bet against him.

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The Browns were reportedly interested in quarterback Brian Hoyer long before they signed him, which meant that his arrival in Cleveland last week became fodder for discussions about increased competition for Jason Campbell and Brandon Weeden this offseason.

Offensive coordinator Norv Turner did his best to play up Weeden’s qualifications for the job recently by saying that he doesn’t think many quarterbacks could have succeeded in Cleveland during the 2012 season and he did his best to downplay the import of Hoyer’s arrival at a banquet on Monday night. While Turner said he like Hoyer’s skills, his comments painted a picture of a team taking a look at a player with some intriguing raw materials than a case of signing a player the team thinks can start for them this year.

“I think there have been more stories written about Brian Hoyer being a Brown over the last four months than probably any player in history,” Turner said, via the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “He was released. He was available. He’s a guy that has been with some good teams in backup situations. He’s played very little football, but I do think we like his skill set.”

That wasn’t the only signal that Turner sent about who might be the team’s starter in 2013. Turner also said that he thought there was more value in Weeden taking the majority of reps with the first team this spring and summer than there was in keeping things even with Campbell, who Turner said “doesn’t need as many reps” as younger players. More exposure could certainly backfire for Weeden if he’s not up to the task, but it still seems likelier than he’s the starter in Week One than any one else on the roster.

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Jets running back Mike Goodson faces gun and drug charges that could, under the weapons portion of the case, put him behind bars for a mandatory minimum sentence of three years.

For the Jets, the challenge becomes what to do with Goodson while the court process plays itself out.

On Monday, owner Woody Johnson tiptoed around the crux of the problem.  If they cut Goodson now, he walks away with a $1 million signing bonus that can’t be recovered.  They can get some of the money back, and in turn can obtain cap relief, only if they let the process play out.

The key date in the process comes on June 12, when Goodson will have a pre-trial hearing.  As pointed out by Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News, that falls in the middle of the team’s mandatory minicamp.  If Goodson misses practice to attend the hearing, the Jets could penalize Goodson, at a minimum with a fine.

The problem for the Jets would be the plain language of Article 4, Section 9 of the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement.  While the revised terms expand the situations in which all or a portion of a player’s signing bonus can be recovered, the provision makes no reference to partial reimbursement arising from a missed mandatory minicamp practice.  Instead, the forfeiture process begins in training camp, and applies more forcefully in the regular season.

But the Jets can’t recover money from Goodson unless he’s still on the roster.  That’s why the Falcons never released Mike Vick after he was incarcerated for dogfighting in 2007; to recover bonus money paid to Vick (and to get the cap credit that goes along with it), the Falcons had to hold their nose and refrain from cutting Vick.

For the Jets, the far better approach to the Goodson conundrum would be to stop channeling Clark Kent and explain in blunt, candid terms that there’s only one way to make a player answer financially for off-field misconduct — by keeping him on the roster while the legal process unfolds.

Of course, that kind of candor could open the Jets up to criticism that they’re more concerned about money than doing the right thing.  But if the plan will be to keep Goodson around in order to eventually recover money from him, why not remove the confusion regarding the reason for not cutting him loose?

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When Eagles coach Chip Kelly was trying to downplay the significance of offseason snap counts, he joked: “Someone charted them, I would imagine.”

That they have, and it’s obvious that Kelly’s trying to keep his quarterback job competitive for as long as possible.

According to Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Nick Foles took 21 snaps to Michael Vick’s 15 in seven-on-seven and team drills Monday.

That’s more than a sprinkling, and continues to point to the competitiveness of the situation.

While any quarterback would prefer most of the work to get ready for a season, there’s no reason for Kelly to make a decision now. He hasn’t been able to work with either of them long enough.

For the record, Matt Barkley apparently has the lead for the third-string job, with 21 snaps to five for Dennis Dixon and two for G.J. Kinne.

Now that that’s been documented, we can return the reporters covering the Eagles to their crucial other duty — documenting the songs on Kelly’s practice playlist.

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The Ravens traded Anquan Boldin to the 49ers earlier this offseason, leaving them to sort through the rest of their roster to find receivers to play alongside Torrey Smith and Jacoby Jones this offseason.

Boldin led the team in both catches and receiving yards last season, so there’s a big hole to fill even if Torrey Smith takes the expected step up after catching 99 passes over his first two seasons. Jones’ kick and punt return responsibilities mean that he’s only going to be able to do so much so that leaves a relatively inexperienced crew vying for expanded roles in the Baltimore offense.

According to Mike Preston of the Baltimore Sun, Deonte Thompson is standing out in that group ahead of Tandon Doss, David Reed and LaQuan Williams. Preston reports that the Ravens think Thompson, who had five catches in his rookie season, has the “inside track” on a starting job across from Smith because he is the most complete option of the group. Coach John Harbaugh didn’t go that far in his assessment, but he did give a positive review of the second-year player.

“[Thompson] could sneak in there, he looks different, is fast and catches everything,” Harbaugh said. “But the other guys like Doss and Reed have done well and worked hard during the offseason. As I’ve always said, the best player will play.”

There’s been so much focus on the changes to the Ravens defense this offseason that Boldin’s departure and the ensuing gap in the depth chart have been relatively small topics of conversation. That figures to change in OTAs and training camp as the team tries to put together an offense capable of repeating as Super Bowl champions.

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On Monday, Bills defensive lineman Mario Williams tried to explain text messages that had been released to the media by the lawyer representing Williams’ ex-fiancée.  It could be the first of many times that Mario must respond or react to things said and done by Tony Buzbee.

Buzbee is employing a common, and effective, litigation tactic.  Williams has sued Buzbee’s client on grounds Buzbee deems to be frivolous and unwarranted, and Buzbee will do everything he can to make Williams regret that decision.

For more proof of Buzbee’s plan, look no farther than his recent comments to Tim Graham of the Buffalo News.  Buzbee justifies an aggressive reaction to the Williams lawsuit by explaining that the lawsuit he filed contains serious allegations against Buzbee’s client, Erin Marzouki.

“He called her a thief in a public pleading,” Buzbee told Graham.  “He said in a public pleading that she never had any intention of marrying him.  He said in a public pleading that she had been the one to break off the relationship.  He said in a public pleading that the only reason she was with him was to get his money.

“He swore that to be true.  Those are some pretty damaging things to say about someone when you know good and well the pleading that you filed is going to be picked up by the press.”

And so Buzbee is fighting fire with hellfire, releasing text messages that have limited relevance to the potentially key question of whether Williams or Marzouki broke off the engagement.  While the text messages arguably prove that Williams was moody and erratic, which could perhaps support a finding by a jury that Williams ended the engagement and permit Marzouki to keep the $785,000 engagement ring, that’s just cover for what Buzbee is really doing.

It’s the Reggie Hammond “let’s see what we can f–k with next” approach.  And it often works.

In some cases, however, the approach serves only to piss off the other party.  Here, it could cause Williams to dig in and spend more than $785,000 in an effort to retrieve the ring.

The only good news is that the couple apparently hadn’t registered at Bed Bath & Beyond.