I would have liked to have seen Mike Patrick as Michaels partner but he doesn't have the star appeal Theismann has. He probably doesn't have the necessary qualities to back Michaels up either as he's more of a front man himself. I hope that ESPN finds a good place for him as well as for Maguire.

Suzy Kolber has one of the best analyst's minds around I think and she'll make a great sideline personality, though I'll always miss Melissa Stark. Kolber has hosted her own NFL show with Jaws for several years so I hope she moves into this new role successfully. I'm not sure really where Michelle Tafoya fits into all this and I wouldn't mind seeing her move to something else but that remains to be seen.

In other news, Shaun Alexander inked a one-year deal today with the Seahawks, essentially the same deal he turned down three months ago but with a couple of crucial differences. First, the Seahawks lose the right to tattoo him with the franchise tag again next year, making him an unrestricted free-agent at the end of the season if he doesn't get the long-term deal he craves. Second, he has the right to veto any trades which is pretty big. It seems to me that Alexander is a solid guy, not just a solid football player and he has been one of the reasons for the Seahawks success in the past few years. I know they think they can get someone cheaper but if you think a company has a duty to its employees, it seems that the Seahawks could find a way to have Alexander retire as a member of the team. This is also good news for all those fantasy football crazies out there who have wondered if Alexander would hold out. We here at The Experiment have to stand up and be counted in that group and now I wouldn't mind drafting Alexander, he'll have something to prove this year.

The holdout story continues to get airtime this time favorably from one Greg Garber at ESPN.com. Garber buys into the line fed to him by Drew Rosenhaus, agent to the studs, that there is a double standard in the NFL today where teams can cut underperforming players without paying them the full contract but players can't get out of a bad deal if they overperform (see TO as the prime example). The problem with that reasoning is that that's pretty much how the world goes round. There's lots of noise about the NFL being brutal, that the average career is 3.2 years and that these players just have to set themselves up for life to which I say "What a line of crap."

Here's the deal: if I start underperforming at work, I'm going to get "cut", i.e. fired. That's how it works. Granted, there's a difference with the NFL in that they have contracts but if the players can't get a collective bargaining agreement that includes guaranteed money (and let me tell you, that will never happen, the owners would close up shop before they cut their own hamstrings like that, ala the NBA) then they need to quit whining. I have zero sympathy for all these whining babies taking their "case" to the press when no one else wants to listen. It's sad to see a journalist buy into the hype but it's still just hype. I'd take 3.2 years of half a mil a year any day of the week. Don't tell the people who have to spend $400 for a family of four to see a game that you need a bigillion dollars to feed your poor family. Don't insult me like that. These guys always exist and the Rosenhaus' of the world feed the flames but they all need to get their happy ass in camp or try to make it on their good looks out in the real world. Idiots. Greg Garber too. Of course, TO now says he'll report. They almost always cave. They can't handle not being in the limelight and the very first place a holdout goes is into the dark, dark world of "nobody in the press wants to talk to me anymore." Idiots. Owens should still be playing San Fran if the world was a just place. What a jerk.

Lots of rookies signing contracts including Alex Smith, the number one pick this year. And last but not least, erstwhile ex-dopehead Ricky Williams reported to camp and apologized to his team and the fans, which is about all you can ask for. Now he better get to earning that $8.some odd million he didn't want to pay back while learning holistic medicine and gazing at his navel. Good for him, lets hope he doesn't fall off the wagon before his first suspension gets completed.
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