Joe Delaney: A tribute

It's been 25 years since Joe Delaney lost his life. Though his death was felt keenly by many at the time, he is hardly a household name these days. In an era where young guys such as Pacman Jones, Chris Henry et al tarnish the reputation of their fellow players, now is a good time to reflect on someone who's life took a very different road.

For those who don't know the name, we forgive you. His contribution to the NFL was cut short after just two seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs - one of which was strike shortened. That he made the Pro Bowl as a Rookie is testament to Delaney's athletic ability, but it was his character that will be the enduring memory of the man.

On June 29th, 1983, Joe Delaney, while resting in a park, Joe Delaney heard screams. When he reached the source of those screams, he found that three young children had fallen into a water hole on a recently excavated construction site. Despite having, according to wife Carolyn 'never having stuck a toe in the water', Delaney dived in. The water was 20 feet deep, and despite saving one of the boys, Joe Delaney never re-surfaced after diving a second time for the two others. He was just 24 years old.

In today's NFL, perhaps we get so used to those who have wasted natural talent, those who's only desire is money, and of course, those who indulge in the kind of extra-curricular activities that incur the wrath of the local law, that we forget there are plenty of players who are doing justice to Joe Delaney's memory in their own ways.

In his last interview, Delaney told the Ruston Daily Leader that he wanted "...to be remembered as a good person, a family man."

Hopefully this article goes some way to helping Joe achieve his goals, and if it brings his name into the conciousness of a few more fans, it is the least that Joe deserves.

Mooch agrees with us on Millen

You may remember this article we posted last week. If not, hey, may want to see a Doctor about the old short term memory.

But we digress...

Steve Mariucci, former coach of the Detroit Lions, San Francisco 49ers, and lately an analyst on NFL's 'Gameday' program, has spoken out regarding Matt Millen, and his fruitless attempts to rejuvenate one of the NFL's worst franchises.

"Matt Millen has changed 58 coaches already, and he's now finally changing players,"
- Steve Mariucci

In an interview with the Marquette Mining Journal, a Michigan based paper, Mooch lets fly, breaking what has been a relatively dignified silence since he was sacked after a Thanksgiving day defeat against Atlanta three years ago. "Sure I've stayed in touch with some of (the players) and some of the coaches, and on occasion Bill Ford Jr. I respect the heck out of Bill, he'll take that team over some day." says Mariucci, who also reveals that his future in coaching will be limited to the Bay Area - even though he is aware that could mean he never works in the NFL again.

We (obviously) agree with Mooch. Matt Millen is onto his fifth coach in seven years as Lions President - yes, he's even worse at picking Head Coaches as he is picking players in the draft.

Report: NFL has tickets of mass destruction, but only for 90 minutes.

The league announced yesterday that 15,000 extra tickets that went on sale last week sold out in just 30mins. Coupled with the 40,000 sold in May, this means that the vast majority of tickets available publicly have now been snapped up for the San Diego Superchargers @ New Orleans Saints @ Wembley game this October. You can expect a very small final sale of any confiscated or unsold tickets as we head towards the home stretch.

We have one gripe with the league on this one, and that was the original claim that those 40,000 tickets sold out in just 90mins. Whilst we are right behind NFLUK's efforts to promote the London series, and we'll come out and say it right now:

It's questionable at best.

If 40,000 tickets went on sale at 10am, and were sold out by 11:30am, then why were we able to buy tickets at 12:30pm?



The NFL released a further 5000 tickets sometime on the 29th May. If that is the reason, then it is interesting that tickets were still being sold at around 22:30pm on that night, according to many customers. Some have expressed the feeling that because the extra tickets were not publicised as well, people were not trying to buy the extra tickets, but that doesn't make any sense at all, and here's why:

Consider that between 11:30am and 22:30pm, just 5000 tickets were sold. Many fans purchased multiple tickets too, so, to put a conservative estimate on it, around 2-3,000 people bought tickets in a 12hr span, during which the NFL sent out emails to all members, and released a press statement at 1pm.

It's that fact that makes us doubt the original claim of 90mins. If that was the case, why, then, were we able to purchase four on a whim, after the 90mins, but before the extra 5000 were released? We imagine that there were plenty of people who did likewise, and forums were inundated with people

What annoys us most about this, is that there is no shame in selling out your ticket allocation over the course of a whole day. The sport is thriving in Britain, and frankly, the ability to pretty much guarantee that you'll sell all available tickets is all the NFLUK team need to be able to present to the NFL when they make their case to host a third consecutive game next season.

We think that this is a carefully planned strategy by the NFLUK marketing team to exaggerate popularity and convince those in two minds about purchasing tickets to splash the cash. Again, we really don't want to knock the NFL, nor the chances of the UK staging future games, but it's important to retain integrity and honesty - especially with the fans.

Weekend News Roundup

The Bucs gave Earnest Graham a new deal, thus enduring that Earnest goes to camp. Here all week folks.

Pittsburgh released backup RB Najeh Davenport. The writing was on the wall for Davenport when the Steelers drafted Illinois back Rashard Mendenhall in the first round of this year's draft.

New England's Wes Welker took a shot at departed CB Asante Samuel:

"Asante's a great player, so it hurts not to have a guy like that. But then again, it's part of the business of the game... He chose money over championships, and that's the way it goes sometimes."
- Wes Welker during a football camp at Oklahoma University

Interesting, but perhaps it's easier for Welker - who would have had a one year deal with Miami had New England not stepped in last year - to talk about such things, because New England was essentially his only option when he was in the same situation.

Kevin Jones update: Despite reports to the contrary late on Friday, Jones worked out for four teams (The Dolphins, Steelers, Packers and, of course, the team that knew best what he could do, the Lions) on Saturday afternoon. The Cleveland Browns also asked for a video of the workout, which suggests at least a partial interest.

Following the off-season pattern, the Titans signed Tackle David Stewart to a long term deal. The money being thrown at the offensive lines of many franchises (The Bills and Jets for example) is indicative of a shift in strategy around the league. We think that many teams are now focusing not just on the glamour Left tackle position, but on cohesion. Linemen depend on each other, and many teams now seem to recognise that having a consistent group of starters is better than 1-2 great players.

Shaun Alexander claims to be in contact with seven different teams. For now at least, the main starting gig going seems to be in Detroit. At least, it's the only one going for someone who goes down as easily as Shaun Alexander.

Jags very, very set at Defensive End

Despite spending two high draft picks on Defensive Ends during the 2008 NFL draft, Jacksonville have secured 7.5-sack Paul Spicer, who has had a relatively productive couple of years, despite spending the majority of his career as a backup. Spicer is 32, and brings some much needed experience to what will be a young D-line considering the additions of Derrick Harvey and Quentin Groves, ostensibly signed to be his and Reggie Haywards' replacements in the next two years.

One thing that puzzled us during the draft was Spicer's status. He was certainly productive for long stretches of last season, yet the Jags still felt that not one, but two new starting Defensive Ends were neccessary. Clearly Jack Del Rio believed that a pass rush is the missing piece of the Jaguars' Superbowl puzzle, but perhaps the loss of Marcus Stroud on the inside will be felt more keenly than anticipated.

Lynch Loses License

Buffalo Running Back Marshawn Lynch pleaded guilty to 'failure to exercise due care toward a pedestrian' today, finally ending the saga that has lasted for a whole month, despite being something that could probably have been cleared up in two days.

Lynch lost his driving license for an unspecified amount of time, something that should technically prohibit him from making a similiar mistake. One thing that seems to have become clearer is why this took so long. It seems that Lynch was genuinely unaware that he clipped 27yr old Kimberly Shpeley. She suffered a bruised hip and required 7 stitches to a wound on her thigh, and has stated that she is considering a civil lawsuit against Lynch.

Is it possible to hit someone, even in a Hummer, and not know about it? Perhaps a reader who owns one could let us know.

Commisioner Roger Goodell, who has been in New York State all week, has said that the league will "... wait and see what the facts are and then we'll decide whether it's a violation or if it has any involvement in our personal conduct policy."

It is doubtful that Lynch will serve a suspension, though he will likely be fined.

Commissioner has his say on Rookie contracts

With the NFL on collision course with the NFL Players Association over... well over pretty much everything, Commissioner Roger Goodell has spoken out on a few issues during a symposium at the Chautauqua Institution, N.Y.

Goodell calls the current C.B.A "financially unworkable", and says that he hopes a new deal will be reached by next March. One group of young men who should follow the negotiations closely, are those College students intending to declare for next year's draft in April. Today Goodell spoke at length on the spiralling contracts being handed out to high draft picks:

"There's something wrong about the system... The money should go to people who perform. (A First Round pick) doesn't have to play a down in the NFL and he already has his money, now, with the economics where they are, the consequences if you don't evaluate that player, you can lose a significant amount of money.

- Commissioner Roger Goodell

Goodell's words echo that of NFLPA president Kevin Mawae, who called rookie deals such as the $72m deal Matt Ryan signed with Atlanta 'disheartening'. Dolphins kicker Jay Feely concurred, and said that '90% of current players' are against the current system. With this in mind, surely this is one issue that will be easily resolved when the CBA talks start? Well, no actually.

You see, the NFLPA Union is represented by Gene Upshaw, who (providing Matt Stover hasn't had him replaced) will be the man in charge of negotiations with the owners. Unfortunately, Upshaw is dead against a rookie wage scale, and made this clear during the furore over Ryan's deal:

"we're dealing with such short careers with our rookies and with our players that if you entered into some type of scale or some type of structure for a rookie, it wouldn't make any sense in our business."
- NFLPA Chief Gene Upshaw

Upshaw seems to want to drive a hard bargain, securing not only rookie deals, but also veteran contracts at the current inflation-busting momentum. This makes no sense, as despite the 'rookie pool' that Upshaw uses to support his argument (Each team has a limited amount of the salary cap to spend on rookies per year), veterans are still being short changed compared to the top 10 guys coming into the league each year, many of whom will prove to be completely unworthy of such money.

We think that this could be a big issue when the NFLPA decides what it is doing with Upshaw. 49ers representative Walt Harris declares that he thinks Upshaw "...has done an exceptional job", and cites the current C.B.A as proof. Hold on a second Walt, you're suggesting that Upshaw did a good job on that? The league opted out of the agreement at the earliest possible opportunity, less than two years after the agreement was signed. All Upshaw did was give the owners every reason to hold out for a better deal this time around. The fact that when Matt Stover made public his desire to see Upshaw replaced, the idea was not completely rejected, suggests that there may be those within the NFLPA who are open to the idea of having Upshaw replaced before negotiations start.

And if you were a veteran who's union boss seemed intent on keeping your salary down at the expense of untested Rookies, wouldn't you feel the same?