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It’s ironic, really. The system is set up to prevent this. It’s designed to create parity and equality. This is what the people behind it champion to the masses. There are 32 teams that operate under a socialistic form of government that calls itself the NFL (National Football League). A more accurate title would be the PRPF (People’s Republic of Pro Football).

In the PRPF, revenue a team earns goes into a pot, where it is then redistributed in a more proportionate fashion. Money a team spends on player payroll must not exceed $116 million in the year 2008. They call this the salary cap. In the PRPF, teams that achieve the most success are rewarded with a lower draft position and harder schedule the following season. Teams that do the best in the draft eventually are forced to give up the highest number of quality players in free agency. Otherwise, they’d go over that cap. This is the system.

There is the belief that the key in pro football is to operate within the system and beat the other 31 teams. It’s not. Rather, the key in pro football is to beat the system. Beating the other teams is the secondary issue. Some clubs know this. Few understand it. And even fewer actually do it.

The Indianapolis Colts are one of the few.
Cont……

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Okay, so they were late bloomers. No big deal. What’s important is that they’re here now. Robert Kraus didn’t include a chapter about dwelling on past failures in his epic children’s book Leo the Late Bloomer. The Houston Texans are here, and they’re doing things right. This is what people were clamoring for a few years ago, no? The story was always supposed to be how the fresh-start Texans win six games and establish an identity in the process. Then, how they grow from their mistakes, build on their successes, win eight games the following year and suddenly become the upstart Texans. This is precisely what people had in mind; this is what a so-called “expansion franchise” is supposed to do.

After dilly-dallying for their first four seasons, the Texans finally started doing it right. Much of the thanks goes to third-year head coach Gary Kubiak. The longtime Broncos offensive coordinator has effectively planted his football seeds in Houston’s soil. He’s invested in a quarterback (Matt Schaub, with the outside possibility of Sage Rosenfels). He has fine-tuned his coaching staff (zone-blocking genius Alex Gibbs was recently hired to coach the offensive line; 28-year-old Kyle Shanahan, son of…you guessed it, was promoted to offensive coordinator). And he has allowed the front office, headed by GM Charlie Casserly in 2006 and taken over by Rick Smith that same year, to build a defensive foundation primarily through the draft (first-round defensive end Mario Williams and second-round linebacker DeMeco Ryans in ’06, first-round defensive tackle Amobi Okoye in ’07).

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Their voice has been cracking. New parts of their body are growing hair. When they eat, they eat a lot. When they stop, they’re still hungry. So, they eat some more. They see a dame walk by and their mind gets deluged with new thoughts. Powerful, perplexing, intriguing, confusing, unrelenting, gross, graphic, delicious new thoughts. Sometimes they wonder if there’s something wrong with them. If there is, then they don’t want to be right. They never tell anyone this. Too embarrassing.

But everyone can see it. Puberty is a process. Everyone hits it. If you don’t have someone there to mentor you and guide you through it, it will hit you. That’s how things like going 3-13 happen.

Insert the St. Louis Rams––a team going through puberty without even knowing it

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Pssstt. Come here. Shhh. Listen up.
Now, what I’m about to tell you needs to be kept quiet. You can’t repeat any of this to anyone––especially not the Seahawks. If they hear you, this plan will be foiled. Got it? Good. Now listen: As you know, head coach Mike Holmgren is retiring after the season. Can you believe he’s been here 10 years now? Neither can he. But come 2009, he’s done. Wants to open a bakery with his wife Kathy or something. Anyway, because he’s leaving, everyone––the media, fans, whoever––will begin to say that the 2008 season will be one last hurrah for this Seahawks team.
This, of course, is nonsense. For whatever reason, people either don’t realize or don’t believe that this franchise is pretty well set. There is a winning roster in place for at least another two or three years (which, in pro football time, is an eternity). GM Tim Ruskell has done a very fine job.
Cont….

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If the San Francisco 49ers were a public company, the major shareholders would be calling for the CEO’s removal. Few could have imagined the amount of talent this team would waste last season. A year ago, the Niners completely emerged out of what fans were referring to as Salary Cap Hell. A decade spent suffering the consequences of the Carmen Policy, Eddie DeBartalo-created financial turmoil had rattled the once proud Football Empire of the West. But with their accounting problems gone and the NFL’s escalated salary cap in place, John York’s organization turned over a new leaf. The 49ers liquidated their $30 million in capital (i.e. cap space) and put it in the hands of Scott McCloughan, instructing the third-year GM to go out and purchase a winning team.

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Try all you want…you won’t succeed. It can’t be done. You can be a fan of the game, student of the game, historian of the game, whatever. It doesn’t matter. You still can’t figure out these Arizona Cardinals. Nobody can. It’s impossible. They’re too ambiguous. They’re football’s embodiment of the word maybe. They’re the 20 minutes of time you have to kill. They’re the girl who gives you her number and then never returns your call.
Start with Arizona’s record from last season: 8-8. Their PR department touts it as the team’s first non-losing season since 1998 (actually, they’re calling it their first “.500 or better season” since 1998). The plain-speak department touts it as the epitome of mediocrity. The Cardinals were 3-3 against clubs with winning records last year and 5-5 against everyone else. They went 2-2 in the first quarter of the season and 2-2 in the fourth quarter.

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What Reggie Bush does in 2008 is going to establish his reputation for years to come. And this has nothing to do with Kim Kardashian.

After being the most trumpeted rookie to enter the league since Hershel Walker, the former Heisman Trophy winner, at times in ’06, dazzled defenses en route to posting 565 yards rushing, 742 yards receiving and eight total touchdowns. They were solid but far from spectacular stats, but the fact that the rebuilt, post-Katrina Saints got all the way to the NFC Championship game meant fans had no trouble giving Bush the benefit of the doubt.

Last year, however, was a different story. New Orleans struggled from the…

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Down the road. Oh, down the road. Hard to fathom how great they’ll both be. But you know what? We don’t need to discuss down the road; they’re actually ready now. Both of them.

One of them you’re familiar with. He’s the one out west who burst onto the scene on Monday Night in Week 1 last season before going on to claim NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year honors. The other you’ve heard of but may not have yet encountered. He’s the one back east who terrorized opponents last year after the leaves turned.

They’re both ready, which means we need to be ready. The debate is in place. Preemptive as…

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As part of the NFLTouchdown.com Top 27 Veteran Acquisitions piece

God bless ‘em, they’re trying. The Jacksonville Jaguars have continually brought in talented projects to fill the abyss that formed at the wide receiver position after the retirement of Jimmy Smith. Anticipating the abyss, Jacksonville drafted Reggie Williams with their first-round pick in 2004, then Matt Jones with their first-rounder in 2005. They used another first-round selection on a pass-catching tight end in 2006, drafting UCLA’s Marcedes Lewis.

What’s more, before Smith’s retirement in 2005, the team was routinely searching for a replacement for Keenan McCardell. In ’03, Jacksonville traded for Cleveland’s Kevin Johnson, a former 33^rd-overall draft pick. That year, they…

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It’s wedding season and most of the NFL is on vacation. What better time to reveal this?

This is part of the Prevent Defense series, examining football and women. Some call it football humor. Along these same lines, check out the FODAFST, which looks at scouting girls through football metaphors.

An NFL Insider’s Perspective

1. The Ring

In football, you earn a ring that’s worth five figures for being the best.

In marriage, you buy a ring for someone else that’s worth four to five figures simply to avoid being the worst.

2. The Market

Rocky football season? No problem, just improve the situation by hitting the market during the offseason and picking…

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