Big Time Slacking

It's been three days since my last post, and all I can say is "I'm sorry." It's been a busy few days for me, but not for the NFL. The only substantial news is that Seahawks LB Lofa Tatupu has been arrested. With that in mind, I am going to add a brand new feature to my blog: a Criminal Counter. I will update it each time a new player is arrested or charged with something, and we shall see how high the number of troubled players actually is.

On another note, time for a rant. Over the past few years, more and more players are doing the hold out thing. To me, this is ridiculous and unnecessary. I don't care how much players think they should get paid, and neither should they. What happened to the time when a player played for the love of the game? Outside guys like Brett Favre, this never happens anymore. The focus of every player is on how much he is getting paid. And, this has led to an extraordinary number of hold outs and trade requests over the past few years.
But, we should have seen this coming. There was once a time when the salary cap stopped teams from spending money like crazy, but it seems that time has also passed. The cap goes up every season, and it allows teams to spend at rates we have never seen. Rookies are making more money, and it doesn't make any sense. When a guy like Raiders QB Jamarcus Russell is the first overall pick in the draft, and right away scores 31 million dollars guarenteed, you know it is getting out of hand. I'm all for paying rookies, but I can't see the logic in giving that much money to a player that has never touched an NFL field.
This pretty much ties itself right back into my previous point about criminals in the NFL. Players come out of college with nothing, and are immediately rewarded with huge contracts. So, what do they do? They get themselves into trouble with the law, by going to bars, buying weapons or just causing a ruckus.
So, back to hold outs. These have brought a black cloud over the game of football. When guys hold out from their team, they send a message that it is indeed only about the money for them, and there is no other reason for them to play. I know it is too late to stop this trend, but with the NFL's current labour crisis looming, the owners may have to make a stand and attempt to lower the cap.
For those of you who don't know, the labour crisis is due to the fact that the current Collective Bargaining agreement is done after this coming season. What does this mean? Well, it means that if no agreement is met by September, next season will be fine. But, in 2010, we will have a salary cap-free season, and that doesn't spell good for anybody. Following that, it will be hard for the owners to get the cap back in play, as players will make crazy amounts of money in 2010, and will want to keep it up.
All I can say, from a lowly blogger's point of view, is that the players should stop being greedy, and spending better, so we the fans don't have to suffer.

Criminal Counter: 1