Gruden creates impression he didn’t agree with dumping Jaws from MNF

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The bizarre “Jaworski signs an extension!  He’ll be on TV more! . . . . oh, but not on Monday Night Football” release from ESPN contains a link to quotes from the three men who, until today, called the games.

The most intriguing comments come from Jon Gruden, who seems to imply that he didn’t agree with the reassignment of Jaworski.

“I understand there are times when players have to put their faith in the coaches and other decision-makers who are trying to position a team for success, and that’s what I’m doing here,” Gruden said.  “I have faith in the people I’m working for here at ESPN.  Jaws has taught me so much about broadcasting and nobody works harder.  He also watches as much film as anyone.  I’ll miss working with him on Monday Nights but I’m glad we’re still on the same ESPN team.”

Apparently, that’s the best that ESPN’s P.R. team could come up with to throw water on the appearance that Gruden didn’t want Jaworski in the booth any longer, which would be the perfect bookend to the belief that Tony Kornheiser wanted Jaworski to replace Joe Theismann five years ago.

Though many TV decisions are made without the input or agreement from the on-air talent, Gruden occupies a special position with ESPN.  The powers-that-be assume he’ll eventually leave to coach again, and they’re likely doing everything they can to keep him around for as long as possible.

What better way to try to persuade Gruden to stay than to make Monday Night Football into, essentially, The Jon Gruden Show, with Mike Tirico?

Maybe that’s why ESPN is going out of its way to create the sense that Jaworski wasn’t fired.  Maybe the goal was to keep both guys over the long haul, with someone realizing that the best way to keep Gruden beyond 2012 is to make Monday Night Football all about him.

AP

When Warrick Dunn was 18, his single mother, a police officer moonlighting as a security guard, was murdered during an armed robbery. That left Dunn and his five younger siblings without a parent, and he considered quitting football and skipping college to get a job and care for his family. But members of the Dunns’ Baton Rouge community banded together to take care of his siblings while he continued with his plans to attend Florida State, and he vowed that if he ever had the means, he would repay that help by taking care of not just his own family, but also other struggling families.

Dunn has come through on that vow, and then some.

Warrick Dunn Charities, which Dunn founded when he got into the NFL, has just donated its 115th home to a needy family of a single parent. The latest recipient is a woman in Hall County, Georgia, who had been struggling to get by with her three sons but has now been given a fully furnished home by Dunn’s organization.

“One of the key things she said is that, ‘I had one bed.’ We supplied her with everything that she needs,” Dunn told WDUN. “When she pulled up she was excited to see me, but I think the joy was when we walked through the home and she got to see everything in the house was hers. I feel like we changed a life.”

AP

The Cincinnati Bengals have their second first-round pick signed.

Kevin Zeitler, a guard from Wisconsin whom the Bengals selected with the 27th overall pick in the NFL draft, has signed his rookie contract, the team announced. The Bengals had already signed their other first-round pick, cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick.

The Bengals traded down in the first round and ended up taking Zeitler with the 27th overall pick, which they acquired from the Patriots. But they said they liked him enough that they would have taken him at No. 21 if the Patriots hadn’t made the trade offer.

When the Bengals got Organized Team Activities underway, Zeitler was working with the first-string offense as the starting right guard.

“It’s cool to be up there getting some reps, but I have a long way to go,” Zeitler said. “If they did put me with the first unit – great. If they didn’t, I would have just tried to work my way up. I just try to do my job and try to get better.”

The Bengals’ two third-round picks, wide receiver Mohammed Sanu and defensive tackle Brandon Thompson, are the only draft picks they haven’t signed.

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After months of premature cork-popping and unhatched-chicken-counting, it’s now official.  The Minnesota Vikings will be getting a new stadium.  In Minnesota.

The Minneapolis City Council voted Friday to ratify a Thursday vote to accept the deal that went from bill to law in the Minnesota Legislature earlier this month.

The project reached the finish line five weeks to the day after a trip by Commissioner Roger Goodell and Steelers owner Art Rooney II to the Land of 10,000 Lakes created sufficient concern that the Vikings, absent a new stadium, could soon join the Lakers in Los Angeles.

Once again, the measure passed City Council by a vote of 7-6.  Which is sort of fitting because it’s a reminder of the low scores of Vikings games played outdoors at Metropolitan Stadium, the pre-Metrodome home of the Vikings.

Speaking of outdoors, the only remaining question is whether the Wilfs will kick in enough extra money to put a retractable roof on the new venue.  You know, for those two games per year when it would make sense to slide it open.

Even then, sliding open the lid would sacrifice some of the sound that the Vikings so famously generated at the Metrodome.

Regardless of the amount of noise, the best news the franchise and its fans in Minnesota is that the team will be staying put, at least for another generation or so.  When the time will come to squeeze the public coffers for enough money to build the next new stadium.

AP

Jets linebacker Bart Scott put out word through his agent in February that he was “extremely frustrated” with his role in the Jets’ defense. But after talking to Jets coach Rex Ryan, Scott says everything is good.

Scott told the Star-Ledger that he told Ryan he wants to be on the field for every snap, and that he and Ryan have come to an understanding about how he’ll be used this season.

“It’s cool, it was just something Rex and I needed to be on the same page about,” Scott said. “[I wanted him] to know where I stood and what the plans were and once we hashed that out it was fine. I’ve never been afraid to speak my mind or bet on myself so that was a conversation that needed to be had, we had it and we moved on. Hopefully I can be back to what I’ve always done, which never included leaving the field a lot.”

Scott has always been one of Ryan’s favorite players, dating back to their time together in Baltimore, and signing Scott as a free agent was one of Ryan’s top priorities when he became the head coach of the Jets. After Organized Team Activities on Thursday, Ryan made a point of mentioning that Scott had looked good on the practice field.

“I think Bart, Bart is ready to be Bart Scott, the guy that we brought in here,” Ryan said. “When you look at it, Bart will tell you he had a disappointing year last year, just like I’ll tell you I had a disappointing year last year. And this whole football team — Bart and myself — want to have a great year this year.”

Ryan said he was impressed with Scott’s attention to detail, and liked seeing Scott taking notes during defensive meetings, even though Scott has played in Ryan’s defense longer than anyone else on the Jets.

Scott’s attention to detail apparently does not extend, however, to the quarterbacks he’s facing on the practice field. Scott had an interception during 7-on-7 drills, and he mentioned to reporters afterward that he had picked off “McCoy.” The Jets don’t have a quarterback named McCoy; Scott apparently thought he had intercepted third-stringer Greg McElroy. Scott had actually intercepted Tim Tebow.

At least there was one person at the Jets’ OTAs who wasn’t obsessing over Tebow.

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Former NFL kicker Mike Vanderjagt has been suspended from his middle school coaching job after he was accused of grabbing and screaming at a student, apparently because the child taunted Vanderjagt over his missed field goal in the Colts’ loss to the Steelers in the 2005 playoffs.

The Naples News reports that Vanderjagt is a part-time coach at a middle school in Marco Island, Florida, but that he was suspended from that position when the school’s dean of students called the police to say that Vanderjagt had been witnessed grabbing a student by the throat. According to the police report, a student was taunting Vanderjagt by yelling “wide left, wide left,” and Vanderjagt walked up to him, grabbed him by the throat and started cursing at him. Both the student involved (who apparently didn’t realize that Vanderjagt’s miss against the Steelers was actually wide right) and another student who witnessed the incident told police the same story.

That sounds a bit like what got Bobby Knight fired from a much higher-profile coaching job, and it’s unsurprising that Vanderjagt’s side of the story is similar to Knight’s story when he got fired at Indiana: Knight said he was simply trying to teach a young man to respect his elders, and Vanderjagt said that he decided he had had enough after students had been taunting him about missed field goals for months.

Vanderjagt said he did nothing more than put his hand on the child’s shoulder at the base of his neck to hold him in place while talking to him, and he had no intention of hurting or threatening the student. Police forwarded their report to the state’s attorney’s office, which decided not to press charges. It will be up to the principal to decide when or if Vanderjagt is reinstated to coaching.

Vanderjagt spent eight years in Indianapolis and had some very good seasons but is remembered by many for that miss against the Steelers, which was his last kick with the Colts before spending one final NFL season with the Cowboys. He’s also remembered for being famously roasted by Peyton Manning, who called him a “liquored-up” “idiot kicker.” The always reliable Wikipedia says that Vanderjagt is currently working as a pizza delivery man.

AP

The Bengals have done their best to distance the stripes on their helmet from prison stripes in recent years, but one of their undrafted rookie signings is bringing back the old associations.

Linebacker Brandon Joiner has been sentenced to three years in prison for two counts of aggravated robbery and one count of felony drug possession. The charges stem from an incident in 2007 when Joiner was playing at Texas A&M.

Joiner and another man forced their way into an apartment and assaulted two men before binding them with duct tape. They stole their wallets, keys, cellphones and marijuana. When police searched Joiner’s home they also found hydrocodone and Ectasy.

Joiner finished out his collegiate career at Arkansas State after the arrest forced him off the Texas A&M team. Joiner’s lawyer said that they hope he will be released on parole after six to nine months if Joiner behaves himself behind bars.

“Since this incident, Brandon has conducted himself in an exemplary fashion and I’m sure he will continue to do that,” attorney Jay Granberry said, via the Bryan/College Station Eagle. “There are a lot of people rooting for Brandon and I’m convinced he’s not going to let anyone down.”

The Bengals haven’t made any comment about Joiner’s status at this point.

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The Dolphins have signed another draft pick.

The team announced Friday that they have agreed to terms on a contract with linebacker Josh Kaddu, who they selected in the fifth round last month. As with all players signed after the first round, Kaddu signed a four-year deal.

Kaddu will play outside linebacker for the Dolphins, likely on the strong side of the formation. He doesn’t figure to challenge for a starting spot any time soon, but the Dolphins hope his size and athleticism will come in handy on special teams in the 2012 season. Kaddu had an excellent career at Oregon and his draft status might have been deflated a bit because of a hamstring injury that caused him to miss the combine.

With Kaddu in the fold, the Dolphins have now signed four of their nine draft picks. It also means we’re even closer to having 253 draftees under contract before Memorial Day.

We’re sure you’ve got big plans for Memorial Day weekend, but there’s no better way to kick it off than with Friday’s episode of PFT Live.

Cardinals defensive end Calais Campbell will join Mike Florio to talk about life since signing his new contract a couple of weeks ago. We’ll also find out about how things look on the defensive side of the ball in the desert where Campbell will be counted on as leader.

Florio will also speak with Ross Tucker of Sirius XM NFL Radio. Tucker, who is also a game analyst for Sports USA, and Florio will discuss the news that came out of the various Organized Team Activities around the league this week. They’ll also catch up on the juiciest quarterback competitions and talk a bit about the collusion lawsuit that has the NFLPA and NFL back at each other’s throats.

You can watch it all live at noon ET.

It’s still unknown whether NFL Network will keep Warren Sapp beyond the expiration of his contract in August.  But it is known that Showtime won’t be bringing Sapp back for Inside the NFL.

Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports that Sapp is out.  Per Jackson, Showtime has confirmed that James Brown of CBS, Phil Simms of CBS, and Cris Collinsworth of NBC will be returning.

It’s unknown whether Showtime will be replacing Sapp on the cast.  Two years ago, Showtime wanted to hire NBC’s Rodney Harrison to moonlight.  As we heard it at the time, NBC was fine with that arrangement, but CBS (which owns Showtime) didn’t want a second NBC employee on the panel.

After several weeks off the air following an outing of former Saints tight end Jeremy Shockey as the person who blew the whistle on the bounty program, Sapp has recently returned to NFL Network.

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The mystery of Lawrence Taylor’s Super Bowl ring lives on.

Despite sharing a past filled with drugs and hookers, Charlie Sheen told Dan Patrick Friday that he was not the man who bought the ring LT received after the Giants beat the Bills in Super Bowl XXV. There was a report from Jay Glazer of FOX that Taylor and his agent were told that Sheen was the buyer of the ring, which sold at auction for $230,401, but the man responsible for the Torpedo of Truth tour said that there was no truth to it.

“As much as I would be honored to own such an important artifact, I had nothing to do with the acquisition,” Sheen said, via Patrick’s producer Paulie Pabst.

And so the search goes on. We now know that it wasn’t Osi Umenyiora, Brandon Jacobs or Sheen who bought the ring. Perhaps it was Ashton Kutcher?

AP

Alex Smith raised some eyebrows this week when he used Cam Newton as an example of how great statistics from a quarterback don’t always translate to wins. Now one of Newton’s teammates is firing back.

It started when Smith got defensive about his stats, saying that he’d rather be judged by his team’s record than his passing yards.

“I could absolutely care less on yards per game,” Smith said. “I think that is a totally overblown stat because if you’re losing games in the second half, guess what, you’re like the Carolina Panthers and you’re going no-huddle the entire second half. Yeah, Cam Newton threw for a lot of 300-yard games. That’s great. You’re not winning, though.”

There’s some validity to what Smith said there: A quarterback’s passing yardage is often dependent on the score of the game, and in most of the 49ers’ games last season they were protecting leads in the second half. That’s part of the reason that Smith ranked 27th in the NFL with 196.5 passing yards a game.

But then Panthers linebacker Jon Beason took to Twitter with a valid point of his own. Beason told Smith to keep quiet about Newton, and he took a shot at Smith over the fact that the 49ers tried to sign Peyton Manning this year before settling on bringing Smith back.

“Alex smith, don’t hate on Cam Bc your stats would’ve gotten u cut if Peyton decided to come 2 San Fran.Truth b told..That’s after a 13-3 yr,” Beason wrote.

Beason is blunt, but he has a point: The 49ers tried to sign Manning, and the Panthers didn’t try to sign Manning, and the reason for that is that the 49ers aren’t as confident that Smith is their long-term answer as the Panthers are that Newton is their long-term answer.

And when Smith says to Newton, “You’re not winning,” he seems to be suggesting that Newton is to blame for the Panthers’ 6-10 record last season, and that Smith himself deserves the credit for the 49ers’ 13-3 record. And that’s nonsense.

The reason the 49ers won more games than the Panthers last season was because the 49ers’ defense and special teams were better than the Panthers’ defense and special teams. It’s ridiculous for Smith to suggest that he did more for his team than Newton did for his team when the Panthers’ offense was better than the 49ers’ offense.

Smith did a fine job last season of playing not to lose by cutting down on his turnovers and avoiding mistakes on a team whose defense and special teams were among the best in the league. But Newton did an amazing job last season of arriving on the worst team in the NFL and instantly making it competitive. Beason is right: Smith shouldn’t compare himself to Newton.

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We knew Dallas Clark would be wearing a uniform other than the Colts one he’s worn since entering his league if he played in 2012, but we didn’t know which one until he signed with the Buccaneers this week.

That wasn’t the only team that expressed interest in Clark’s services, however. The Chiefs and Patriots were also sniffing around the veteran tight end before he decided to walk the plank in Tampa. Clark went on ESPN Radio with Doug Gottlieb, which came to us via JoeBucsFan.com, to explain his decision.

“All three very, very good organizations. I had a feeling that when I was going to make the decision it was just going to be easy and it was going to be clear cut,” Clark said. “But man, when you have these three teams involved and these three organizations, it was extremely hard. You know, it took me a few days, but at the end of the day it just felt right down here in Tampa.”

Not to cast aspersions on Clark’s soul searching or anything, but it doesn’t take transcendental meditation to figure out why it felt right in Tampa. The Buccaneers traded away Kellen Winslow, leaving plenty of snaps for Clark’s taking if he is healthy enough to grab them.

That wouldn’t be the case in New England, where Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez have the position locked down. Kansas City has Tony Moeaki and Kevin Boss at tight end, which might not be quite as daunting a duo but would definitely get in the way of ample playing time for Clark.

AP

Three weeks ago, I desperately wanted a break from all the stories about whether kids should play football.  Now, I desperately want a break from all the stories about the back-to-the-future toxic relationship between the NFL and the NFLPA.

And, of course, the respite comes via another story about whether kids should play football.

But this one goes the other way.  It’s not about why kids shouldn’t play football.  It’s about why kids should play football.

Steelers safety Troy Polamalu had this to say on the subject, via the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:  “Absolutely.  You face so many different adversities.  You deal with so much emotionally, but what makes this sport unique is that you can deal with a lot physically.  You face guys that are bigger, stronger and faster than you.  You can be physically dominated, but you still have to get up and fight.  That’s a type of thing you can’t learn anywhere else, especially not in any other sport.”

Teammate Larry Foote agrees.  “Yes, because they’re just starting to scratch the surface of making the game safer — and they are trying,” Foote said, perhaps not recognizing the irony in his remarks regarding safety, given that his teammates consistently complain about efforts to make the game safer.  “My son isn’t going to be skateboarding or any X-Games type of activities.  The way I feel about that stuff is the way some people feel about football, that it isn’t safe.  But I know how football challenges you every day, how you learn discipline and control.  Once you start learning those things you can apply them to anything, including studying and especially life.”

Of course, the same could be said of skateboarding or X-Games activities, or plenty of other sports or endeavors that entail physical exertion and, in turn, physical risk.

Polamalu acknowledges that everyone may assess those risks differently.  “I don’t know if parents should feel comfortable [letting kids play football], to be honest,” Polamalu said.  “It’s not the responsibility of the game to make anybody feel comfortable.”

The question is how much risk — and in turn discomfort — will be tolerated by a parent, or by the child once the child is old enough to make his or her own decision.  It’s unclear where the line is.  But for most parents it still resides somewhere between playing football and re-enacting scenes from the Jackass movies.

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Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow might be all about competition these days, but Sanchez’s agent doesn’t think it will amount to much.

On a busy day when breathless reports of the 7-on-7 drills at Jets OTAs provided another clue about how all-encompassing coverage of the Jets will be this season, Sanchez’s agent Brian Murphy took to Twitter to pump up his client. Murphy doesn’t take kindly to the media’s attempt to make Sanchez-Tebow into a full-fledged fight for the starting quarterback job.

“No offense media, but of course Sanchez is going to out perform Tim T. Mark is a franchise quarterback and Tim is a great athlete.”

It’s true, Sanchez is a franchise quarterback. It just happens to be for a franchise that saw no problem bringing in a quarterback that they knew would instantly and constantly fan the flames for Sanchez to be replaced as the team’s starter. The fact that Sanchez outperforms Tebow in practice isn’t going to change that one bit.

Like everyone who has criticized Tebow, Murphy quickly realized that it is a sure way to ruffle feathers. He tried to smooth them out a little bit later, again via Twitter.

“Didn’t mean to create a stir nor disrespect TT who has done nothing but excel on football field. This is my opinion and time will tell.”

Not bad for the first full day of the Sanchez-Tebow Jets. Things should only get better (for those of us watching, anyway) from here on out.

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Over the past several weeks, ample discussion and speculation have emerged regarding the teams that will (or, more accurately, won’t) appear on HBO’s Hard Knocks.

Michael Shain of the New York Post (via SportsBusiness Daily) reports that HBO wants to have its team picked by June 1.

Plenty of franchises are out of the running.  Redskins coach Mike Shanahan and Seahawks G.M. John Schneider separately have told PFT Live over the past week or so that their teams aren’t interested.  49ers owner Jed York removed his team from the running in response to a PFT tweet regarding Shanahan’s lack of interest.  Also, the Falcons previously declined an offer to appear on the program.

The Broncos reportedly have passed.  Ditto for the Texans.  Jets G.M. Mike Tannenbaum told PFT Live last week that the Jets haven’t been offered the assignment (which possibly means they’ve made it known in advance that they don’t want to do it).

Per the report, NFL Films president Steve Sabol has been unable to personally recruit teams as he continues to fight brain cancer.  “Without him going out to the teams twisting arms,” an unnamed “insider” told the Post, “it’s been hard.”

Still, HBO privately claims that there will be a team, and thus there will be a show.  (The Jaguars currently are believed to be the only team that actually wants to do it.)

My first choice would be the Jets.  Then the Saints.  Then the Broncos, Colts, and Redskins.  Beyond those five teams, it simply won’t be appointment viewing in 2012.

I’ve got a feeling — just a feeling — it’s going to be the Cowboys.

Feel free to post your preferences and/or guesses in the comments.