While wondering if maybe we should find a bio for Taye Biddle ...
First Down:
Sidney Rice says his hip willbe ready for the start of the season. Yeah, the same Sidney Rice who's on PUP after saying he'll be ready for the start of training camp. (Note: A player could have his head chopped off and still say he'll be ready forthe next game.) A lingering hip injury that happened in JANUARY is a huge deal. Hipstendto be important parts of the human body and really important for humans who play football. The puzzlingpart is why this wasn'ttaken care of months ago. To recap, the Vikings now havetheir best receiver on PUP, while their second best receiver (Percy Harvin) suffers from unpredictable migraines andand their thirdbest receiver (Bernard Berrian) struggles to stay healthy. If Rice can't start the season, who becomes the No. 3 receiver: Greg Lewis, Logan Payne, Mr. Biddle, Marquise Hamilton, Marko Mitchell, Ray Small? Does Darius Reynaud move from running back back to receiver?The latter sounds like the best option without having studied the others. Whatever happens, thiscould become as big of adeal as when No. 4 will finally showup.
Second down:
The commishsure whacked Lions prez Tom Lewand upside the head, didn't he?Lewand, who was luckythe Lions didn't fire him after his drunken driving arrest last month, was suspended 30 days and fined $100,000.Off the top of my head,I believe the last non-player to geta six-figure clobbering wasMike Ticewhen hewas caught sellingSuper Bowl tickets.After punishing Lewand, the commish,Roger Goodell, said: "As we have discussed, those who occupy leadership positions are held to a higher standard of conduct that exceeds what is ordinarily expected of players or members of the general public." Seems like a good moveto me. It's harsh and it eliminates the possibility that a player can argue that high-ranking team and league officials get preferential treatment.
Time out: I talked to former Vikings offensive coordinator and current Cowboys receivers coach Ray Sherman yesterday. I asked him how big a deal was it that Dez Bryant refused to carry veteran Roy Williams' gear earlier this week. "The media blew that way out of proportion," Sherman said. "Dez and Roy laughed about it. That tells you how big of a deal it was."
Third down:
My most vivid memory of watching Lions training camp when Mike Martz was offensive coordinator was how many deep balls were thrown. Well, word out of Bears camp is Martz is doing the same as Chicago's offensive coordinator. Friday, he called several deep balls to be thrown to .... tight end Desmond Clark? Interesting.