Free agency starts in a few weeks, and here's what we know: the Cowboys may or may not cut ties with Terrell Owens, and the Ravens may or may not try to re-sign Ray Lewis.
In the meantime, T.O. has decided to lobby owner Jerry Jones on Ray-Ray's behalf. Presumably because the team, as it's currently constituted, seems to be devoid of leadership. (And, yes, the fact that Owens is spearheading this effort caused the irony meter to blow up.)
There is a pretty good chance Terrell Owens has played his final game as a member of the Dallas Cowboys, as a number of people in the know seem to think it's simply a matter of when, and not if, the team decides to part ways with its controversial receiver.
Following his two-day stint in the Cowboys front office, Dan Reeves spoke of a tug-of-war battle between the Keep Owens camp and the Dump Owens camp, while NFL reporters such as Jay Glazer, Adam Schefter, Peter King and Ed Werder are all convinced the Dump Owens side will prevail in the end.
Last Friday, Dan Reeves decided that maybe working for the Cowboys wasn't such a great idea and, after one day on the job, walked away. But what if Reeves had stayed? What would that have meant for Wade Phillips and Jason Garrett?
As the Dallas Morning News' Tim MacMahon pointed out last week, "The Cowboys tried to help Garrett by hiring Reeves, but that isn't exactly a vote of confidence for the highest-paid assistant coach in NFL history."
Apparently Dan Reeves was in the process of decorating his new Valley Ranch office* when he suddenly decided that working for the Cowboys wasn't such a swell idea. Despite spending most of Thursday on the radio, Reeves wasn't willing to elaborate on why things didn't work out (he was too preoccupied with the never-endingTerrell Owens saga).
Today, though, Reeves was a little more chatty. According to the Dallas Morning News, the former NFL head coach wasn't all that jazzed by a clause in his contract detailing how many hours he was expected to work.
A week ago, it appeared as if former NFL head coach Dan Reeves was going to be joining the Dallas Cowboys front office. As it turns out, the deal was never really completed and Reeves, after spending about two days in Dallas, isn't talking about why everything fell through. What he is talking about, however, is far more interesting in a this could blow up like the A-bomb and consume as all sort of way.
Tim MacMahon of the Dallas Morning News has put together a gold mine of quotes from Reeves following his whirlwind tour of Dallas sports talk radio, all of which discuss the "tug of war" debate that is currently raging on at Valley Ranch. The topic of this debate? Why, it's Terrell Owens, of course!
I typically don't follow the 49ers all that closely during the offseason, but I thought it was surprising that they would interview former Broncos and Falcons head coach Dan Reeves for the offensive coordinator job. Partly because he just turned 65 but also because he last coached in the NFL in 2003. (The last time a Bay Area team hired a coach who had been away from the game for some time the results were comically disastrous.)
That San Francisco interviewed Ravens quarterbacks coach Hue Jackson for the same job is less surprising; he has experience as a coordinator and played a big role in Joe Flacco's progress this season.
I can't speak for Redskins fans but as a Texans fan, I find it very difficult to listen to former Houston GM Charley Casserly act as a draft analyst. It strikes me a bit like getting parenting lessons from Britney Spears.
His latest gig is being a professor at George Mason University, teaching students on how to get a job and keep it. The advice is pretty sound--finding a job, paying your dues, impressing bosses, finding mentors, volunteering to do harder jobs. Of course, he missed one of his steps that the Houston media would probably point out right away--put blame on other people in case things don't work out.
For young job seekers, I would suggest it is also important to look older and more responsible than you are when you are looking for your first job. And just looking at Casserly, never ever get gray in your helmet hair as you get older and make sure Wikipedia doesn't know your age. Having non-stop BS skills is a plus, and always sound confident in what you are saying, even when you don't know what the hades you are talking about. "See, that's the way we do it in the NFL see....."
All GM's make mistakes on players. But you would hope that those GM's would learn from some of those mistakes. One of the biggest problems I had about Casserly is that he completely discounted the value of middle round picks in building a team in the modern salary cap era. The Texans are still paying for that mistake in the lack of depth on their team.
If he were a lesser man, former Falcons head coach Jim Mora might look upon Atlanta's plight as schadenfreude-tastic. After owner Arthur Blank fired him last off-season, Mora landed with the Seahawks, but he's not one to revel in the misfortune of his former employer. At least not publicly, anyway:
The quarterback is in the clink, the Atlanta Falcons are in the cellar and the coach they hired to replace Jim Mora hightailed it out of town earlier this month. ... But being fired didn't prevent Mora from feeling some fallout from the disaster that has been Atlanta's season. ...
"I feel for those people there," Mora said. "I made a lot of great friends in that organization and have a lot of great relationships with people there, both players and people in the front office. I feel for what they're going through. It's not easy.
The Falcons never lost more than seven games under Mora, and made it to the NFC Championship game in 2004. Now they are a 3-12 team one loss away from their worst season in 11 years.
Even if Mora had stayed Vick's predicament would likely be unchanged, but you have to think Mora would've done a better job with the day-to-day responsibilities that go with coaching a group of young millionaire professional athletes. After watching Bobby Petrino bumble his way through at Atlanta, anybody would've been an improvement.
A year ago, many people thought Mora underachieved just enough to lose his job. But in retrospect, he looked like Dan Reeves compared to Petrino. Which reminds me: why did Blank fire Reeves again?
"I can't do this no more," Hall said. "I won't do this no more, let me say that. I will not be a part of a losing team another year, no matter what I got to do, no matter who hates me, whatever. I won't be a part of a losing team again, not if I can help it."
Who woulda thought this team would miss Jim Mora? But that's exactly the case less than 12 months after owner Arthur Blank canned the smilingest coach in NFL history. To Hall's credit, he did indicate that he'd be willing to stay around if the next coach isn't a sociopath in the mold of Petrino, but he's not willing to rule out requesting a trade either.
NFL teams always have a need for cornerbacks, even those cornerbacks that are overrated. Hall will certainly have teams lining up for his services, but it likely won't be for the huge second contract he's looking for. One option is to sign a short-term deal packed with incentives, and test the market again in a couple of seasons. Or he could take his chances in the A.T.L. with a yet-to-be-named coach.
All this silliness makes you wonder why Blank fired Dan Reeves in the first place.
For as much athletic talent as Michael Vick was born with, he only had one really good NFL season. That was in 2002, his first year as the Falcons' starter, when Dan Reeves was his coach.
"It's just sad when someone has that much God-given talent for something," Reeves said, "and it's potentially going to be wasted."
Reeves also appeared on ESPN Radio this morning and said that the one thing that always worried him about Vick was that he didn't hang around with the right people. Reeves said of Vick's co-defendants, "He should have been as far away from these three guys that were invited with him as the east is from the west."
You have to wonder, though, where people are getting this idea that Vick is a basically good person whose downfall was hanging around with the wrong crowd. It is Vick, after all, who is portrayed in court filings as the ring leader of the Bad News Kennels dog fighting operation, and without Vick's financing, the operation wouldn't have existed. I don't blame Reeves for being sad, but I think he needs to be more realistic about who Vick really is.
Free agency starts in a few weeks, and here's what we know: the Cowboys may or may not cut ties with Terrell Owens, and the Ravens may or may not try to re-sign Ray Lewis. 
There is a pretty good chance Terrell Owens has played his final game as a member of the Dallas Cowboys, as a number of people in the know seem to think it's simply a matter of when, and not if, the team decides to part ways with its controversial receiver. 
Last Friday, Dan Reeves decided that maybe working for the Cowboys wasn't such a great idea and, after one day on the job, walked away. But what if Reeves had stayed? What would that have meant for Wade Phillips and Jason Garrett? 
Apparently Dan Reeves was in the process of decorating his new Valley Ranch office* when he suddenly decided that working for the Cowboys wasn't such a swell idea. Despite spending most of Thursday on the radio, Reeves wasn't willing to elaborate on why things didn't work out (he was too preoccupied with the never-ending Terrell Owens saga). 
A week ago, it appeared as if former NFL head coach Dan Reeves was going to be joining the Dallas Cowboys front office. As it turns out, the deal was never really completed and Reeves, after spending about two days in Dallas, isn't talking about why everything fell through. What he is talking about, however, is far more interesting in a this could blow up like the A-bomb and consume as all sort of way. 
I typically don't follow the 49ers all that closely during the offseason, but I thought it was surprising that they would interview former Broncos and Falcons head coach Dan Reeves for the offensive coordinator job. Partly because he just turned 65 but also because he last coached in the NFL in 2003. (The last time a Bay Area team hired a coach who had been away from the game for some time the results were comically disastrous.) 
I can't speak for Redskins fans but as a Texans fan, I find it very difficult to listen to former Houston GM Charley Casserly act as a draft analyst. It strikes me a bit like getting parenting lessons from Britney Spears.
In retrospect, DeAngelo Hall doesn't seem like the crazy one when compared to that bumbling taskmaster, Bobby Petrino. He's still obnoxious, but relative to the Falcons head coach, Hall's occasionally random demands don't seem quite so ridiculous: 
