watermock
09-16-2005, 12:47 PM
This is why I like PFT. He tore down M.I. like the overdressed punk he really is.
For a guy who lives in a stained-glass and powdered-mirror palace, Michael Irvin sure loves to toss the boulders.
His most recent target is Packers quarterback Brett Favre, whom Irvin blames for the current predicament facing receiver Javon Walker.
Walker stayed away from the team's entire offseason program in protest of a rookie deal that pays him $515,000 in 2005 and $650,000 in 2006. Based on his 2004 Pro Bowl season (which came on the heels of two average-to-mediocre campaigns), Walker wanted to cash in, hoping to be paid (so we heard) like Randy Moss.
Said Favre in early May, when Walker's intentions became clear: "If Javon wants to know what his quarterback thinks, and I would think he might, I'd tell him he's going about this the wrong way."
Walker eventually showed up for training camp. And in the first game of the regular season, Walker tore an ACL. He's done for 2005, and likely won't see a new contract in Green Bay until he proves in 2006 that he is healthy and still effective.
Irvin blames the whole thing on Favre.
"Now, this is a story here," Irvin said Thursday, according to The Palm Beach Post. "This boy came back into camp because of Brett Favre. The great Brett Favre. This is not some rookie quarterback calling him out when he was asking for his money. This is the great Brett Favre. . . .
"I love Brett, I appreciate Brett," Irvin added. "But Brett should know business is business. You don't mess with another man's business.
"Now, what do you do, Brett? If I'm Brett, how you can walk in the room when you just did surgery to say, 'Hey, man, I'm sorry this has happened?' How could you do it? How could you look that man in his eyes?"
We haven't been, won't be, and never will be Brett Favre sycophants. There are already too many of them out there. But on this point Irvin is way, way off.
The flaw in Irvin's reasoning is that Walker showed up for camp because of Favre's comments. Not true, based on our knowledge of the situation. Walker didn't report because of Brett Favre, but because of the many thousands of dollars Walkers would have lost if he didn't show.
For starters, the Packers would have been able to recover a big chunk of Walker's bonus money if he had breached his contract by not reporting to camp. Likewise, if Walker had failed to report by August 8, he would have lost a year's credit toward free agency. He also would have been susceptible to daily fines.
If the holdout had lasted into the regular season, he would have lost more than $30,000 per week in game checks. And if he'd missed more than 10 regular-season games, Walker's contract would have been tolled for a year.
The other flaw in Irvin's argument is the presumption that the Packers would have caved in and paid Walker if he had held out. The team, however, made it clear that Walker wouldn't get a new contract this year. The fact that Walker didn't hold out suggests that he and his agent found the team's commitment in this regard credible.
So money talks much louder than does Brett Favre or anyone else. It's convenient for those of limited cognitive abilities (inherent and/or chemical-induced) to blame Favre, but we suggest that before Irvin or anyone else points to Brett as the reason for Walker's present twist of fate, they consider the facts.
The facts, of course, don't always fit with the agendas of guys like Irvin, who never lets reality get in the way of yet another chance to draw attention to himself.
And the notion of Irvin criticizing anyone is curious, to say the least. As one high-level league insider opined on Friday morning, "For a guy that has as many skeletons in his closet and past transgressions in life, the guy is awfully opinionated and judgmental about people. . . . [He] represents an angle of the game that is bad for football -- just like him supporting the two idiots that got into a brawl" prior to Monday night's Eagles-Falcons game.
The whole thing makes us wonder why the NFL hasn't pressured ESPN to put a sweat sock in Irvin's stew shoot. Although we like the idea that someone/anyone is willing to actually express opinions other than "Michael Vick is the greatest quarterback ever to play the game," a guy spouting off takes that are misguided and misinformed isn't a good thing.
If the NFL was able to squeeze Bristol's balls into dropping its former show Playmakers, our guess is that the league office eventually will suggest to ESPN that it might want to consider dropping a former playmaker who will only make more trouble if no one calls him out and/or shuts him up.
NFLPA CAVED TO COMPETITION
In response to our report that the NFL Players Association has dropped the premiums for its mandatory liability insurance by $1,000, multiple league sources have advised us that the reduction occurred not because of the complaints from agents, but because of the fact that other insurance companies were ready to offer the same product for less money.
The premiums for the NFLPA policy acquired through AIG started at $3,500 per year. The low end premium is now down to $2,500.
"[R]ival insurance companies were coming in with much better rates and AIG was forced to match them," said one source. "AIG initially thought they were going to have a monopoly on screwing us."
This development suggests that the NFLPA didn't do a very good job of shopping around before trying to shove the policy down the throats of its agents.
As another source said, "The PA continues to look bad and their half-assed approach to developing this program sure reinforces the opinion many have of them."
For a guy who lives in a stained-glass and powdered-mirror palace, Michael Irvin sure loves to toss the boulders.
His most recent target is Packers quarterback Brett Favre, whom Irvin blames for the current predicament facing receiver Javon Walker.
Walker stayed away from the team's entire offseason program in protest of a rookie deal that pays him $515,000 in 2005 and $650,000 in 2006. Based on his 2004 Pro Bowl season (which came on the heels of two average-to-mediocre campaigns), Walker wanted to cash in, hoping to be paid (so we heard) like Randy Moss.
Said Favre in early May, when Walker's intentions became clear: "If Javon wants to know what his quarterback thinks, and I would think he might, I'd tell him he's going about this the wrong way."
Walker eventually showed up for training camp. And in the first game of the regular season, Walker tore an ACL. He's done for 2005, and likely won't see a new contract in Green Bay until he proves in 2006 that he is healthy and still effective.
Irvin blames the whole thing on Favre.
"Now, this is a story here," Irvin said Thursday, according to The Palm Beach Post. "This boy came back into camp because of Brett Favre. The great Brett Favre. This is not some rookie quarterback calling him out when he was asking for his money. This is the great Brett Favre. . . .
"I love Brett, I appreciate Brett," Irvin added. "But Brett should know business is business. You don't mess with another man's business.
"Now, what do you do, Brett? If I'm Brett, how you can walk in the room when you just did surgery to say, 'Hey, man, I'm sorry this has happened?' How could you do it? How could you look that man in his eyes?"
We haven't been, won't be, and never will be Brett Favre sycophants. There are already too many of them out there. But on this point Irvin is way, way off.
The flaw in Irvin's reasoning is that Walker showed up for camp because of Favre's comments. Not true, based on our knowledge of the situation. Walker didn't report because of Brett Favre, but because of the many thousands of dollars Walkers would have lost if he didn't show.
For starters, the Packers would have been able to recover a big chunk of Walker's bonus money if he had breached his contract by not reporting to camp. Likewise, if Walker had failed to report by August 8, he would have lost a year's credit toward free agency. He also would have been susceptible to daily fines.
If the holdout had lasted into the regular season, he would have lost more than $30,000 per week in game checks. And if he'd missed more than 10 regular-season games, Walker's contract would have been tolled for a year.
The other flaw in Irvin's argument is the presumption that the Packers would have caved in and paid Walker if he had held out. The team, however, made it clear that Walker wouldn't get a new contract this year. The fact that Walker didn't hold out suggests that he and his agent found the team's commitment in this regard credible.
So money talks much louder than does Brett Favre or anyone else. It's convenient for those of limited cognitive abilities (inherent and/or chemical-induced) to blame Favre, but we suggest that before Irvin or anyone else points to Brett as the reason for Walker's present twist of fate, they consider the facts.
The facts, of course, don't always fit with the agendas of guys like Irvin, who never lets reality get in the way of yet another chance to draw attention to himself.
And the notion of Irvin criticizing anyone is curious, to say the least. As one high-level league insider opined on Friday morning, "For a guy that has as many skeletons in his closet and past transgressions in life, the guy is awfully opinionated and judgmental about people. . . . [He] represents an angle of the game that is bad for football -- just like him supporting the two idiots that got into a brawl" prior to Monday night's Eagles-Falcons game.
The whole thing makes us wonder why the NFL hasn't pressured ESPN to put a sweat sock in Irvin's stew shoot. Although we like the idea that someone/anyone is willing to actually express opinions other than "Michael Vick is the greatest quarterback ever to play the game," a guy spouting off takes that are misguided and misinformed isn't a good thing.
If the NFL was able to squeeze Bristol's balls into dropping its former show Playmakers, our guess is that the league office eventually will suggest to ESPN that it might want to consider dropping a former playmaker who will only make more trouble if no one calls him out and/or shuts him up.
NFLPA CAVED TO COMPETITION
In response to our report that the NFL Players Association has dropped the premiums for its mandatory liability insurance by $1,000, multiple league sources have advised us that the reduction occurred not because of the complaints from agents, but because of the fact that other insurance companies were ready to offer the same product for less money.
The premiums for the NFLPA policy acquired through AIG started at $3,500 per year. The low end premium is now down to $2,500.
"[R]ival insurance companies were coming in with much better rates and AIG was forced to match them," said one source. "AIG initially thought they were going to have a monopoly on screwing us."
This development suggests that the NFLPA didn't do a very good job of shopping around before trying to shove the policy down the throats of its agents.
As another source said, "The PA continues to look bad and their half-assed approach to developing this program sure reinforces the opinion many have of them."