Not_Joshin_Around

ROSTER REALITIES

NOTE:  I will continue to post my blogs here, but on a delayed basis.  One commenter was frustrated that he would need to go to another site in order to view my blog.  He is correct, blogging is about the free communication of information, which is why have moved my blog to a free site instead of a site I have to pay for and has limited function to engage my readers.  Nevertheless, I will continue to post my blogs here for the foreseeable future, although on a day or so delay due only to time restraints.  I apologize for any frustration this may have contributed to anyone's day.  Best to all!

ROSTER REALITIES

Back in the saddle.  Yes, I took a brief hiatus after a long NFL draft season.  But now I am back at it again.  Mainly because this issues has stuck in my "crawl" for a bit now.  Nearly two weeks ago a couple of the guys who were featured right here on FanFuego, Brandon Carr and Andy Studebaker, signed their first NFL contracts.  What was lost on most NFL fans was the fact that as each of these young men signed that first contract another player was deleted from their respective roster.  This is a foreign concept for the most part.  Over the past dozen or so years the NFL has expanded camp rosters through various exemptions and loopholes. 

The biggest "loophole" closed with the shuttering of NFL Europe.  NFL clubs had been given "roster exemptions" for players who played in NFL Europe.  Those exemptions meant that players returning from NFLE did not count against an NFL club's 80 man roster limit during camp.  In fact, they did not count against the roster at all until the final roster cut to the 53 man roster.  That was then.  This is now. A few weeks ago the NFL owners decided to opt out of the final years of the current collective bargaining agreement with the Player's Union.  To that end, the relationship between the two seems to grow more strained on a daily basis.  One subtle piece in that chess match is training camp roster size.  Egos and strained relationships seem to make grown business men check their brains at the door sometimes.

Let me give you the Reader's Digest version of my conversation with one NFL GM a couple of months ago.  "If the union does not budge on this CBA, then we are going to take away jobs by not expanding rosters for camp.  They will understand that if they are not going to play ball it will cost their player's jobs."  Sound menacing and powerful, right?  WRONG.  First, even under the loosest of loopholes in the past, NFL rosters are still limited to 53 active/inactive players come the beginning of the season.  At best, under this GM's logic, they are taking away summer jobs from non-dues paying athletes who will be back to using their degrees, or toiling in the AFL or CFL.  Those players MIGHT make $5,000 over the course of a summer of workouts and training camp.

On the flip side, virtually every NFL personnel man reiterates his understanding of what this means in reality.  It means as many as ten fewer bodies in training camp.  It means veterans will be taking reps on scout team.  It means seasoned veterans will be taking reps in both practices a day rather than taking one off to rest their bodies in preparation for the long NFL season.  It means critical veteran leaders will more likely be lost to injury during training camp or during the season.  Those veterans, and their large salaries, will have to be absorbed by clubs while they go out and try to find players to replace them off the street.

Why?  Because grown, presumably mature business men think they can prove a point by reducing NFL training camp rosters by nearly thirteen percent.  It will be an interesting August.  But stay tuned.  Hopefully sane minds will prevail and a middle ground will be struck.  I certainly hope so, for more than one reason.  In fact, as of today, three reasons.  You see of the dozens of players released around the league in the past week, three of them are represented by me.  Hopefully this new phenomena will be short lived, cool heads will work things out, and these young men will get to prove their worth on the field of play rather than being pawns in a misguided game of chess.

ROSTER REALITIES

Back in the saddle.  Yes, I took a brief hiatus after a long NFL draft season.  But now I am back at it again.  Mainly because this issues has stuck in my "crawl" for a bit now.  Nearly two weeks ago a couple of the guys who were featured right here on FanFuego, Brandon Carr and Andy Studebaker, signed their first NFL contracts.  What was lost on most NFL fans was the fact that as each of these young men signed that first contract another player was deleted from their respective roster.  This is a foreign concept for the most part.  Over the past dozen or so years the NFL has expanded camp rosters through various exemptions and...

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO READ THE REST OF TODAYS BLOG LOOK ME UP ON WWW.FANFUEGO.COM!  I POST THEM IN THEIR ENTIRETY THERE A FULL WEEK BEFORE THEY POST HERE.

"High collar and baggy pants say I’m a pro."

As I started searching for some images to include in this blog post, I discovered that I am on the cutting edge of this story but not the only one talking about it.  I thought maybe this would turn into my “female op-ed” post, but it turns out that men and women alike are entranced/enraged/incredulous about this phenomenon…

It all began while I was watching Sportscenter this morning…and saw an interview with Mr. Hockey himself, Don Cherry, during which he enhanced his white hair and white beard with a white suit (a la Colonel Sanders) that was covered with a floral print of bright red carnations.  (If you thought it doesn’t get any worse than a floral print suit, you were close.  Florally printed with the tackiest flower alive is rock bottom.)

Why is this blog-worthy you ask?  Only because it coincides with myriad other poor fashion choices by sports commentators.  If people say “Don’t dress for the job you have, dress for the job you want,” what job could these men possibly be going for?  And who’s letting them get away with this?

For me, this conversation started during the 2007 NFL season as ESPN’s newest personality Keyshawn Johnson sported one bizarre color combination after another.  It’s disturbing to flip on the TV on Sunday morning for some NFL pregame coverage before church and have to close my eyes briefly every 3 seconds to avoid going cross-eyed.  Even more perplexing is why he occasionally chooses to rock a scarf like a teenage French girl.  Throughout the season I wondered what upper management was thinking when Keyshawn would arrive in orange tweed and take his place amongst the table of blacks and blues.

Enter the 2008 NFL Draft.  Welcome to Day 1 of one of the biggest events in football!  Millions watching!  Fans on the edge of their seats!  And Keyshawn front and center on the announcing team…looking like Easter threw up on him. He was sporting a sand-colored suit with a turquoise and white striped shirt, baby pink polka dot tie, and a grass-green silk handkerchief wadded into his pocket.

Keyshawn was the worst, but it seemed the rest of ESPN’s coverage team also received the “Loud Tie Memo,” although their candy cane stripes and eye-splitting colors weren’t fighting with their own shirts for attention.  (They must have also received the emergency memo entitled “NFL Draft Day 2: EARTHTONES” because by Sunday there wasn’t a color in the room.)

I am all for expressing oneself through clothing.  I too love bright colors and will occasionally don a combo that would make Punky Brewster cringe, but when clothing exceeds the boundaries of good taste and begins approaching the category of “things-that-will-give-you-a-migraine-if-you-stare-at-them-too-long” (SEE ALSO: London 2012 Olympic logo)…well that’s when we have a problem. TNT’s NBA announcer Craig Sager is another offender: sequin suits, rainbow ties, iridescent fabrics…put him together with Don Cherry’s floral/plaid/paisley wardrobe and you’ve got a JoAnn Fabrics ad.

Which brings me to my image search today and what I found: “Keyshawn Johnson wins the Michael Award for Best-Dressed Man among television hosts in the sports and entertainment industry.”  (It’s the topic of day in Matt Mosley’s blog “Hashmarks.”)  Seriously?  I am speechless.

What do you think – do we need our favorite stalwarts of sports announcing to look like Rainbow Brite?  Does hockey sound better from a plaid man’s mouth?  Does football need Keyshawn’s euro-scarves?  I wonder if we actually prefer that our sports personalities have some outward manifestation of their eccentricity, and that we love them all the more because of it.  But is it worth the toll it takes on our eyes?

(Masterplan's Operation Manager Tami Hardoby is a frequent contributor to this blog.  Tami is still trying to get to China, but only if the quakes are less than 5.0 on the Richter Scale.....)