Peyton Manning may simply be protecting his marketability

AP

On Saturday, we offered up a take on why Colts quarterback Peyton Manning has suddenly gone into full-blown media avoidance mode.  We ultimately surmised that Manning “simply doesn’t want to be put on the spot, either because he doesn’t believe he fully understands the nuances of the labor/litigation issues or because he fears that he may say something that he shouldn’t say.”

Mike Freeman of CBSSports.com has an even better take.  Freeman thinks Manning is keeping a low profile in order to preserve his high profile when it comes to marketing dollars.

“[T]hat’s what his silence is about — sweet cash,” Freeman writes.  “He’s willing to take only so much of a stance and jeopardize his standing as America’s football good guy and bankable commercial star.  Brees doesn’t seem to care, and agree or disagree with his position, he’s as principled a man as I’ve ever met.  Other players have risked the long-term ire of fans, including Jay Feely, Mike Vrabel, and Osi Umenyiora, among many others, doing so knowing taking a public stance could potentially cost them among a divided fan base.”

Freeman will join PFT Live on Monday to discuss this and other aspects of the labor dispute.

AP

The biggest question mark about the Detroit Lions remains their secondary, but for all the questions from outside, inside the Lions’ facilities they’re continuing to insist that the secondary is just fine.

Lions coach Jim Schwartz has previously said he’s confident in the cornerbacks. And Chris Houston, who returns as one of the starters at cornerback, says that even though last year’s other starter, Eric Wright, went to Tampa Bay in free agency, the secondary will actually be better this year than last year.

“We are better,” Houston told the Detroit News. “We got veteran players. Everybody is under the radar.”

If one of the veteran players is starting across the field from Houston, the options are Aaron Berry, who struggled last season in Detroit, or free agent signing Jacob Lacey, who struggled last season in Indianapolis.

“Aaron Berry is a highly competitive guy and he is going to be better,” Houston said. “And he will show what he can do to the people who criticize him. If he stays healthy, he is going to be an asset to this group.”

The Lions drafted three cornerbacks, Dwight Bentley, Chris Greenwood and Jonte Green, and they’re hoping one of them (probably Bentley) will be ready to start as a rookie. The Lions gave up a total of 946 yards and nine touchdowns through the air in their Week 17 loss to the Packers and their wild card playoff loss to the Saints, so they have to get better in the secondary. Houston is confident that they will.

AP

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll is a Hard Knocks fan — just as long as some other team is on.

The Seahawks were approached about appearing on Hard Knocks and said no, and Carroll said on NFL Network Friday that’s because the show would get in the way of the work he has to do at training camp.

“That’s just not going to suit what we’re trying to get done here,” Carroll said. “I think it’s a great show. I love watching it. I loved Rex [Ryan], and when the Bengals — I love those kinds of shows. I look forward to seeing it. But I just don’t want to put that in the middle of our process. We’re trying to win football games and hopefully we can entertain that way, not on the show. That’s not our style.”

That seems to be the emerging consensus among NFL coaches: Hard Knocks may be a good show, but that doesn’t mean they want cameras and microphones in every one of their meeting rooms during training camp. Time is running out for HBO to find a coach willing to deal with the distractions of making good TV.

AP

The NFL and NFLPA have agreed to a labor deal that will carry the game through at least nine more seasons without a lockout or a strike.  But the presence of a labor contract doesn’t guarantee labor peace.

Over the past couple of months, the relationship between the NFL and NFLPA has deteriorated, with more and more points of contention emerging between the parties.  It actually started not long after the Collective Bargaining Agreement was signed, given the failure of the parties to proceed with a fairly clear commitment to conduct HGH testing.

It’s gotten worse in recent weeks, fueled by the Saints’ bounty case and exacerbated by the union’s recent collusion claim.  Look for further deterioration to come.

“There are always going to be situations where our interests don’t align and we’re going to fight tooth and nail,” NFLPA president Domonique Foxworth tells NFL Network’s Albert Breer.  “And we respect each other afterwards in those situations.”

NFLPA executive direct DeMaurice Smith was more blunt during a Thursday press conference:  “Cartels do what cartels will do when left unchecked.”

It’s important for the NFLPA to be vigilant, even in times of supposed labor peace.  And with a former litigator running the union, it’s to be expected that the union’s interests will from time to time be pursued and defended via litigation.

Still, underlying any arguments or lawsuits or debates is the fact that, now more than ever, the NFL and the NFLPA are business partners.  They share every dollar that comes through the cash register, and so they should refrain from taking action against each other that could in any way reduce the total dollars generated.

The collusion claim, for example, could in theory attract the attention of Congress, which could decide to take action against the NFL’s antitrust exemption for broadcast purposes.  Which in turn would inflict major damage on the interests of the league and the interests of the players.

Of the tooth-and-nail fighting, Foxworth says that “we respect each other afterwards.”  But it’s even more important to respect each other during.  And that means making claims and raising defenses to claims not on a knee-jerk or nothing-to-lose basis but only after carefully considering the impact of the proposed activity on the bigger picture.

The claims made in the new collusion case will make it harder for the NFL and the NFLPA to resolve future differences amicably, because the NFL will now fear that the NFLPA will not honor the documents that purport to resolve and release certain legal claims.  In turn, the fact that the NFL apparently engaged in collusion during the uncapped year (regardless of whether the claims were waived by the new CBA) will make it harder for the NFLPA to trust the NFL on pretty much anything.

That’s what the two sides should be aspiring to restore:  trust.  They can agree and they can disagree and they can agree to disagree and they can disagree to disagree, but if they can’t trust each other, the relationship never will be as strong as it could or should be.

AP

Quarterback competitions are unfolding in multiple NFL cities.  In New York/New Jersey, the Jets have a starting quarterback.  But the backup quarterback seems to be reluctant to accept his role.

It’s not the first time Tim Tebow failed to embrace a spot other than No. 1 on the depth chart.  And while every team should want every non-starter to aspire to be a starter, Tebow could go a long way toward taking the steam out of future controversies by telling anyone who will listen that Mark Sanchez is the starter and that Tebow is the backup and that he’ll do whatever else the team wants him to do.

But that’s not Tebow’s way.  Tebow’s fellow quarterbacks in Denver reportedly fined him for remaining silent once billboards went up in 2011 calling for him to supplant Kyle Orton.  If/when teammates and media and fans start calling for Tebow to take over for Sanchez, will Tebow publicly support Sanchez?  Or will Tebow keep his mouth shut?

In New York/New Jersey, smiling and saying “I’m excited” will only go so far.  At some point, Tebow will be asked a direct question regarding public or private efforts to pressure the Jets to put him ahead of Sanchez, and he won’t be able to evade it.

And as to anyone who believes that Tebow’s performance on Thursday at the team’s OTA session, which included a pair of interceptions, will cause him to slip farther behind Sanchez, keep in mind that Tebow has a longstanding reputation of being a poor practice player.  He struggled at Florida.  He struggled at Denver.  He’ll struggle with the Jets.  And he’ll struggle wherever he goes next.

But when he plays he plays well and when he plays well in New York/New Jersey and the clamoring begins for him to be the starter, the right thing for him to do will be to throw his support behind Sanchez.

Don’t count on that happening.

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Six years ago, running back Reggie Bush tried to persuade the league to adjust its jersey rules to allow him to wear No. 5 in the NFL.  The effort went nowhere.  And so Bush adopted No. 25, after finagling it from Fred McAfee.  (Bush now wears No. 22 in Miami.)

This year, the NFL quietly has adjusted its rules to permit the use of Roman numerals on the jersey of quarterback Robert Griffin III.

It should have been obvious 29 days ago, when Griffin held up a jersey that showed “Griffin III” on the nameplate.  But only recently has it been reported that the rules actually were changed to permit players to include “Jr.” and “III.”

Presumably, it also will allow a player with a son named after him to add “Sr.” to the back of his jersey.

Our buddy Ross Tucker, a former NFL offensive lineman who is now a media darling with NBC Sports Network, Sports USA, and SiriusXM NFL Radio (and who prefers hard ice cream to soft serve), joined PFT Live on Friday to talk about a few of the big issues in the NFL.

Ross has some strong takes on the various quarterback competitions unfolding right now, including the one in New York that is or isn’t or may be or could be an actual competition.

We also spent some time on the collusion claim, and the question of whether the NFLPA should have realized when the NFL proposed taking cap money from the Redskins and Cowboys that something fishy was going on.

Check out the entire segment.  Or Ross will come to your house and eat your ice cream.

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Three years ago, Delaware planned to introduce sports betting, including gambling on individual NFL games.  The proposal prompted a lawsuit from the NFL and other sports leagues.

Now, New Jersey wants to give it a try.  Governor Chris Christie said Thursday that sports wagering will arrive at New Jersey horse racing tracks and Atlantic City casinos later this year.

The NFL almost certainly will file suit to stop it.

“Legalized sports gambling beyond where it already existed is prohibited,” NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports.

Aiello refers to a 1992 federal law that prohibits sports wagering.  The only exception is that states allowing wagering from 1976 through 1990 could re-implement or continue such programs.

The NFL’s attack on the Delaware plan succeeded, forcing the Delaware to merely resurrect its post-1976 foray into parlay betting, where multiple games are selected at a time.

The difference this time around is that two NFL teams are headquartered in New Jersey, and Super Bowl XLVIII will be played there.  For now, however, New Jersey’s effort won’t affect the game.

“We are continuing our Super Bowl planning and do not anticipate this having any impact,” Aiello told Wetzel.

The league’s position possibly is influenced by strong optimism that the NFL will beat down the New Jersey plan in court.  However, if New Jersey somehow prevails, the league’s plans could change, in theory.

AP

Though the new rookie wage scale leaves first-round picks and the teams that picked them precious few subjects about which to haggle, one point of potential contention arises from the question of how much of the rookie deal will be guaranteed.

Last year and this year, the first 16 picks received four-year deals with fully-guaranteed compensation.  Last year and this year, picks 17, 18, and 19 received three years of a full guarantee, with fourth-year compensation split between a guaranteed base salary and a non-guaranteed roster bonus due early in the league year.  This approach reduces the guaranteed money by $750,000 or so, but also forces the team to make a decision about whether to keep the player early enough in the offseason to give him the best chance to make up the difference elsewhere.

In 2011, the 20th overall pick (Bucs defensive end Adrian Clayborn) was the lone exception after the 16th pick, getting a fully-guaranteed four-year deal.  (He benefited from the fact that he was the first first-round pick to sign.)  And while the players taken at pick 22 and after received guaranteed pay for three years only, the 21st selection (Browns defensive lineman Phil Taylor) also received a fourth-year package consisting of a blend of guaranteed salary and an offseason roster bonus.

This year, the contract given to Pats defensive end Chandler Jones, the 21st pick in the draft, matches the structure of Taylor’s deal in all but one way.  Per a source with knowledge of the deal, there is no roster bonus.

It’s a subtle be real difference.  In 2015, the Patriots won’t have to make an early decision about Jones, and they can save $750,000 or so by cutting him before the season starts.  The Browns won’t have that luxury with Taylor in 2014.

The formula will put pressure on Tennessee receiver Kendall Wright, this year’s 20th overall pick.  While Clayborn got a fully-guaranteed deal in 2011, there’s a good chance the Titans will insist on using the hybrid roster bonus/guaranteed base salary approach used for picks 17, 18, and 19.

If Wright takes a stand on a matter of principal, he could be one of the rare rookie holdouts under the new CBA.

AP

Convicted of rape and kidnapping in 2003, former California high school football star Brian Banks is now a free man after the victim recanted.  Banks told NBC’s Today on Friday that he wants a shot at pro football.

“I think that any team that gives me an opportunity would be really impressed with what I can do despite all of what I’ve been through these past 10 years,” Banks told Ann Curry of Today.

Banks pleaded no contest as part of a deal that put him in prison for six years; he was facing a maximum sentence of 41 years.  He remained on probation, wearing a monitoring device on his ankle at the Thursday hearing that wiped the convictions off his record.

Banks’ accuser, Wanetta Gibson, had previously expressed to Banks a desire to tell the truth, but she feared having to repay a $1.5 million settlement with the school district they attended.

Now 26, Banks was a linebacker in high school.  He had verbally committed to attend USC.

AP

Temperatures are cooler in Seattle than in most of the cities with NFL teams having Organized Team Activities this week, but things are getting heated between the Seahawks’ wide receivers and defensive backs.

The Tacoma News Tribune reports that a skirmish broke out including several players in the two position groups.

It started when receiver Ben Obomanu and cornerback Jeremy Lane were tussling after the whistle blew on a play and had to be separated. Then safety Earl Thomas jumped in to help Lane, taking a swing at Obomanu. That led to receivers Doug Baldwin and Mike Williams jumping in to help Obomanu. (In the picture, wide receiver Deon Butler is pulling Thomas away from the fight.)

A few plays later, according to the News Tribune, safety DeShawn Shead “almost took Baldwin’s head off” on a pass over the middle.

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said he used the fight as an opportunity to talk to his players about competing hard without crossing the line.

“We’re asking these guys to work really hard, and it really matters to them and they really care,” Carroll said. “And they want to make their plays and their statements, and I don’t blame them one bit. But there is a line that you can cross, and that’s what we talked about afterward.”

And as much as Carroll likes competition, he draws the line at taking a swing at a teammate.

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As HBO gets closer to the June 1 date by which it wants to choose a team to appear on Hard Knocks this summer, and as NFL teams seem increasingly uninterested in participating, there’s another theory about why teams might be reluctant: Having a documentary filmmaker around didn’t work out too well for the Saints last season.

The most damning piece of information that has publicly surfaced in the Saints’ bounty scandal was the audiotape of Gregg Williams encouraging his players to injure players on the 49ers, and that audiotape only exists because the Saints agreed to give filmmaker Sean Pamphilon access to the team. ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported today that at least one team has mentioned the Williams audio as a reason not to do Hard Knocks, and some teams are “paranoid” about Hard Knocks because they’re concerned that giving access to a reality show could lead to something damaging to their reputations being revealed.

Even if those coaches aren’t running a bounty program or in any other way violating any rules, they still might worry that a piece of audio or video from training camp could be misconstrued, and could cast the team or the coaches in a bad light. The last Hard Knocks revealed that Rex Ryan has a potty mouth, but some coaches could be concerned about something more serious than that.

Those concerns may be unfounded, however, because Hard Knocks has always been a partnership involving not just HBO but also NFL Films and the team involved, and HBO has granted the teams the ability to remove content they’d prefer not to get out. For instance, in August of 2001, when the Ravens were on Hard Knocks, HBO allowed team president David Modell and G.M. Ozzie Newsome to see the shows in advance. When then-Ravens coach Brian Billick had an exchange with Eagles coach Andy Reid over the poor quality of the turf at Veterans Stadium, which led to a Ravens-Eagles preseason game being canceled, HBO agreed not to show that exchange, at the Ravens’ request.

But even though coaches on Hard Knocks are told they’ll have the ability to prevent anything they say in training camp from becoming public, that doesn’t necessarily mean coaches have nothing to worry about. After all, Williams never thought his comments would become public, either. And that’s just one more thing going through the minds of coaches who are reluctant to appear on Hard Knocks.

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As Brian Urlacher prepares for his 13th NFL season, it also could be his final one with the Bears.

Urlacher, who turned 34 on Friday, celebrated his birthday by proclaiming in a radio interview that he may give free agency a whirl in 2013.

“I think [Bears president] Ted Phillips said when they had the owners meeting they’re gonna wait until the season is over, Urlacher said Friday on WMVP-AM 1000, via the Sports Xchange. “See what happens, how I play.  It’s kind of exciting.  I’ve never been a free agent.  So if I can get to free agency we’ll see what happens.

“I no doubt want to finish my career here.  There’s no doubt about that.  But you bring in free agency and all that you just never know what’s gonna happen.”

What’s going to happen, if Urlacher becomes a free agent, is that he’ll learn the veteran market for linebackers won’t support the $7.5 million base salary he’s due to earn from the Bears in 2012, especially as he closes in on his 35th birthday.  And when Urlacher realizes that a 35-year-old middle linebacker won’t attract the same interest as a 35-year-old franchise quarterback, he’ll likewise realize that the Bears will pay him more than anyone else.

That may be precisely what needs to happen before Urlacher feels as good as he can about the next contract the Bears will put on the table.

If, of course, the Bears decide to even do that.

AP

Last August, the NFL and NFLPA agreed that HGH testing will be conducted under the new CBA.  Since then, HGH testing has not been conducted.

The parties initially disagreed regarding whether a population study should be performed, in order to ensure the acceptable HGH thresholds for NFL players would be based not on the HGH naturally present in the bodies of Olympic athletes (like figure skaters and skiers) but NFL players.  Finally, they agreed to conduct a population study.

Since then, the doctor who agreed to preside over the population study resigned.  And now the NFL and NFLPA disagree on why the doctor left.

As explained by Mark Maske of the Washington Post, the league believes “the union’s actions caused the scientist who had agreed to do the population study to withdraw.”  Maske writes that the league believes the doctor “became convinced the study was scientifically unnecessary and thought the union’s actions indicated the study was more about politics than science.”  Maske also reports that “other scientists have declined to be involved for similar reasons.”

The union denies this contention, strongly.  NFLPA spokesman George Atallah tells PFT via email that the perception is not accurate.

What is accurate is that the NFL and NFLPA are having an increasingly difficult time getting along.  And we’ve got a feeling it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

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A long-term deal that pays quarterback Drew Brees more over the first three years than the Saints would pay by using the franchise tag for three straight seasons makes no business sense for the team.  And so the three-year breakeven point is (or at least appears to be) $64.305 million, which is the sum of $16.371 million for 2012 plus $19.645 million for 2012 (i.e., 120 percent of his 2012 salary) plus $28.289 million for 2014 (i.e., 144 percent of his 2013 salary).

In other words, if Brees wants more than $21.435 million per year over the next three years, the Saints would be wise to go year-to-year under the franchise tag.

Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports reports that Brees’ camp believes his multi-year take under the franchise tag would be even higher, by forcing the Saints to give Brees a 44-percent raise not in 2014 but in 2013, given that Brees already has played a full season under the franchise tag as a member of the Chargers, in 2005.  This argument arises from the basic notion that, in a player’s second franchise-tag season, he gets a 20-percent raise over his prior season’s salary and, in his third franchise-tag season, he receives a 44-percent bump.

This argument, however, doesn’t mesh with a commonsensical reading of the key language of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.  Article 10, Section 2(b) sets forth the formula arising from a thirdfranchise-tag designations, starting with the following language:  “Any Club that designates a player as a Franchise Player for the third time. . . .”

It doesn’t say “if a player is designated as a Franchise Player for the third time.”  It says “any Club that designates a player as a Franchise Player for the third time.”  This strongly implies that the Club that is designating the player as a franchise player for the third time has designated the player as a franchise player twice before.

This alternative interpretation of the CBA puts only an extra $3.929 million in play, pushing the two-year take from $36.016 million to $39.945 million.  So if Brees wants more than $39.945 million over the first two years, it still makes more sense for the Saints to use the tag twice.

There’s another aggressive argument Brees’ camp could advance under Article 10 of the CBA, but no reference to this possibility appears in Cole’s article.  Brees and the NFLPA could claim that the CBA contemplates that a player will be subject to the franchise tag only three times, since it contains no language or formula contemplating the use of a franchise tag a fourth time.  Thus, if the Saints use the tag on Brees this year and next year, and if using the tag this year and next year amounts to using a tag three total times on Brees, Brees could argue that he can’t be tagged in 2014, and this would be an unrestricted free agent.

Perhaps the best news for the 2012 edition of the Saints is that any discussion about what Brees would earn under the franchise tag in 2013 means that he is in fact willing to play under the franchise tag in 2012, despite multiple reports that he won’t.  If he doesn’t play under the franchise tag in 2012, his salary for 2013 once again would be $16.371 million.

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Giants receiver Hakeem Nicks is having surgery today after he fractured the fifth metatarsal in his right foot, and there’s some room for optimism that Nicks will recover not just before the start of the regular season, but before the start of training camp.

Despite Giants coach Tom Coughlin saying that Nicks’ recovery time will make playing in Week One a close call, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that one person familiar with Nicks’ injury said it was more likely to sideline him for just four to six weeks.

If that’s the case, Nicks would be good to go for the start of training camp. A 4-6 week injury would make Nicks miss Organized Team Activities and minicamp, but nothing more than that.

Even at the more pessimistic reports of a 12-week recovery time, Nicks should be good to go for the start of the regular season, which is 15 weeks away. At this point, unless Nicks has a serious setback, he appears to be in good shape to start the season.