The Sports Rumors

Torre, South Florida, Red Sox and More…

Torre Says Thanks, but No Thanks

I was at work yesterday around the three o’clock hour when I got a text message from a buddy of mine in New York. He said that he had just heard Joe Torre was being offered a one year deal for $5 million, with $3 million offered as incentives if the Yankees reach the World Series. First thing that came to mind? Joe, please do not take this deal. Please do not disrespect yourself and your legacy by being a puppet, a scapegoat, and a mere peasant in the empire that is the New York Yankees. Do not let George Steinbrenner belittle you by offering you another one year deal, with incentives no less, so that you have to deal with the constant façade of questions relating to your job all season. The fact that the Yankees threw in “incentives” makes me so angry and outraged because monetary incentives are thrown to motivate people. Joe Torre needs to be motivated to reach the World Series? Dusty Baker agreed with this sentiment when he said in an interview with Michael Kay that this was such blatant disrespect of a man who has won four World Series and made it to the postseason in each of the past 12 years. Now he needs motivation, monetary motivation at that? Absolutely absurd.

Being a Yankees fan, hearing the news on my drive home from work about Torre rejecting the offer was bittersweet. I was happy that he is leaving with his pride, or whats left of it after twelve years of dealing with “The Boss”. However, I was sad because Torre had turned the Yankees into such a respectful, classy organization that was always an elite team. Mike Greenberg said it best this morning on his radio show:

“You can hate them, or you can love them. But you cannot deny that the Yankees were as classy as any under Joe Torre.”

I don’t know who the next guy will be. Mattingly, Girardi, whomever. I don’t know if they will be successful or not. I don’t know which Yankees will be back, which will be gone, which will retire. I do know one thing though. There will never be another manager in Yankees history who won the way Torre did, and who carried himself the way he did. Good luck to you Joe, with whatever you do.

South Florida Cinderella Story is Over

Well it was nice while it lasted, but as I said earlier this week; historically dominant and elite teams win in college football. In college basketball, yes, Cinderella stories happen nearly every year. Not so in football. USF was defeated by Rutgers 30-27 last night. I was impressed by the confidence the team carried into this game, but never in the past six or seven weeks was I impressed by their game play. A reader of this site said it best, “I swear, every game of their’s I watched, it was like high school ball”. He is referring to the sloppy, missed tackles, turnover filled victories that they had up to this point. Again, good for USF for starting to make a name for themselves. But you have to win consistently for a few years before you can be taken seriously.

Red Sox defeat Indians; Beckett and Lofton Jaw

With the 7-1 win last night, the Red Sox have given fans a reason to watch the championship series as they cut the series lead to a game, 3-2. The series shifts back to Boston for games 6 and 7, starting Saturday night at 8pm. (On a related note, what a terrible decision to show the game at 8pm on a Saturday night. Who is going to sit at home on the one weekend night that they can go out and watch a 5 hour baseball game? Terrible.)

The game became rather interesting last night when Beckett and Kenny Lofton began jawing at each other, rather intensely. Both benches cleared, but nothing came of it. The two have a history dating back to a few years ago, where Beckett has said that it is disrespectful to the pitcher the way Lofton tosses his bat on his way to first base after a walk. He said he would like it if Lofton would show a little more respect. Lofton of course, tossed his bat like he normally does, and on his way to first base, Beckett began screaming obscenities in the direction of Lofton, to which he responded.

What a bunch of weak, whiny behavior this is. You’re mad because he tosses his bat a certain way? Seriously? It’s that big of a deal to you? That is extremely lame and I hope every Cleveland batter starts tossing their bats the same way (which is really unnoticeable unless you are looking for it). The whining of Curt Shilling and now Josh Beckett, among other Red Sox never ceases to amaze me. It’s really like the city of Boston and the Red Sox shrill, school girl attitude were a match made in heaven.

The Fan vs The Athlete Update

We had quite an interesting discussion on a variety of subjects regarding the relationship between a fan and a team. It was all started by the Manny Ramirez “Who cares” comments. The link to the page is listed at the top, and here.

Weekend Recap Part 2 of 3

Here is the baseball section of the weekend.

Before You Join the Fire-Torre Bandwagon, Ask Yourself a Few Questions

If you have been residing under a rock with some very high quality ear plugs for the past few days, you would STILL know that the Yankees are out of the postseason, getting beat in 4 games by the Cleveland Indians. Just a few days ago, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner found it necessary to go blabber his senile mouth about how if Torre didn’t manage to move past the first round, he would be fired.

I don’t know what Steinbrenner was thinking, if he even was thinking. Going out and saying such a thing on the heels of an elimination game isn’t “motivation”. It’s stupidity. These aren’t college kids who will go and “play one for the ol’ ball coach.” No, this isn’t a movie. These are professional athletes who are on the highest level of stardom, who make more money than they can spend, and have their own personal agendas to worry about rather than to be motivated by a 77 year old owner threatening their manager’s job. The antic was not only ridiculous, but disrespectful. If my boss threatened my job in front of all the other employees, and went out of his way to do so for several years, I would quit before he got the chance to fire me and I’d make sure I did something to make him hurt. Joe Torre is too nice of a guy to do that or say anything bad about “The Boss”, which makes it even lower and more despicable for Steinbrenner to continuously leave him out to dry like this.

Okay so the series is over and the Yankees are out. Why hasn’t the man fired Torre yet? What’s the hold up? If you say you’re going to do something, do it. If you’re going to stab your friend in the back, the same friend who helped you win plenty of championships and get you to the postseason twelve straight years, make sure you stab him so he doesn’t suffer. Torre has no idea what’s going to happen and the Yankees look like they’re going to take their time in deciding what to do, while he just sits there and waits. The levels of disrespect that Steinbrenner is showing makes me want to stop routing for the Yankees all together.

Stephen A. Smith said on ESPN news last night that the Yankees need to make a change. Why? Because they haven’t won a world series in all of seven years? Seven years is not that long of a time people. Get over yourself Steinbrenner. Get over yourself New York. Getting a team ready and maintaining their focus for the entire season is a manager’s job. It’s a job that Torre did to perfection for twelve straight years. When you go into a playoff series and your ace (Wang) absolutely chokes, how is that the manager’s fault? When no one on your team can hit worth a nickel, after being the best hitting team in the league, how is that the manager’s fault? If your MVP cannot drive in a run when he has the bases loaded and one out, how is that the manager’s fault? What would La Russa have done that would make Wang pitch better? What would La Russa have done to make Arod calm down and hit the way he did in the season? La Russa wouldn’t be able to make Posada have a better series in which he had only one hit. What would ANY manager have done that would have made the Yankees better for those four games?

Say the Yankees fire Torre. What do you accomplish? You bring in Tony La Russa, who everyone seems to be fathoming over. Please. He had squabbles in his tenure with the St. Louis press. What do you think will happen in the New York spotlight? If you don’t get La Russa, who are you going after? I haven’t even heard Joe Girardi’s name mentioned which is a pretty good indicator that he’s not in the running at this point. And forget who the replacement will be, what will happen to the team?

Do you really think Jorge Posada, Andy Pettite, and Mariano Rivera would want to stay? Absolutely not. They were all Joe Torre guys. Everyone on that team, with the exception of Arod, was a guy who loved Joe Torre. They would go out and fight for the guy. Ask them. Pretty much anyone interviewed has said that it doesn’t hurt to lose in the playoffs as much as it does to let down and lose for Joe Torre because he’s such a great manager and a great person. If you think you can find someone better, by all means. But I am 100% sure, absolutely, positively sure, that there is no manager in the game who can handle New York and Steinbrenner, along with the egos that came and went, with as much class and style as Joe Torre did. And I can also say with utter certainty that there is no manager who would have won the way Joe Torre did.

If and when the Yankees fire Joe Torre, I will love to see them miss the playoffs next year with a new manager. How can I say this when I’m a Yankees fan? Simple. I don’t respect organizations that treat good people badly. You screw Torre, you can go screw yourself for all I care.

In other baseball news, the playoffs have now lost pretty much all appeal. The Cubs are out, the Angels are out, and the Yankees are out. Go enjoy your Colorado-Arizona series while I enjoy some football.

A “Player’s guy” is what many described Torre as.

Today’s Rundown 9/27

Whats up people. It’s Thursday… which means we’re one day away from Friday, so get excited. I got a lot coming today and tomorrow as far as articles and posts are concerned. It’s been a while since I’ve written an in depth piece on something going on in sports so I’ll be putting out two in the next two days. Here’s the plan:

Thursday:

- College Football Weekly Picks (sometime this afternoon)

- Article with some thoughts on the NBA, it’s been a while (sometime this afternoon/evening)

Friday:

- State of the Quarterbacks in the NFL article (Morning)

***The article will be my thoughts on who’s good, who’s not, where certain qb’s will be next season (i.e. McNabb, Grossman, Culpepper etc)***

- Weekly NFL Picks Outright (Afternoon)

- NFL Picks Versus Spread (Afternoon/Evening)

Now that you know the plan, lets move on to Today’s Rundown.

*This will be the first and last time that I ever talk about the Women’s World Cup on here but there is a specific reason for me doing so today. The US Women got waxed 4-0 by Brazil and this is significant ONLY because there was a goalie change announced yesterday. The reason to replace Hope Solo (what a name) with the other goalie (who’s name I have forgotten) was because she had an undefeated streak going against Brazil. My thoughts are this. Don’t tinker with something that works. And more importantly, you can’t replace a goalie who has played well, and has ‘hope’ as her first name! That’s just bad karma. Moving on…

*The New Yawk Yankees have clinched their 13th consecutive playoff birth and will be facing off with the Cleveland Indians in the opening series. This is only news because nobody, including myself, thought they could pull this off back in June. Just goes to show that you should never count the Yankees, Lakers, or Dallas Cowboys out of anything.

*Barry Bonds played his final game last night as a member of the San Francisco Giants. The Giants honored him by having his jersey number etched into outfield where he stands. Bonds went 0-3 in the Giants’ 11-3 loss.

*Speaking of Bonds, if you haven’t heard already, Cooperstown will reportedly accept the 756 ball with an asterisk branded into it by designer Marc Ecko. Ecko held an internet voting poll for the fans to determine the fate of the ball. The other two options were to put the ball in the Hall of Fame as is, or to shoot into space on a rocket. Fans apparently felt the asterisk was sufficient.

*I’m sure you’ve heard by now, Michael Vick tested positive for marijuana on a test taken September 13th. It’s somewhat sad to see that this guy still doesn’t understand the importance of making wise decisions, given what he’s already gone through and what he’s about to go through.

Today’s Rundown 9/25

*Michael Vick has been indicted on more dog charges, with the latest coming from the state of Virginia.  I’m not going into details on this one but this is such a sleezeball type of deal from state attorney Gerald Poindexter.  He was the one who didn’t find anything to charge Vick with before the Feds moved in.  Now he’s trying to save face by adding to the punishment.  Absolutely ridiculous.  If you want to read more on this story, it’s on espn.com and every other sports site.  Lets move along.

*So I couldn’t have been any more wrong on my pick last night.  The Saints are terrible.  I had no idea, none whatsoever, that they would be this bad through three games.  It got so bad towards the end that the fans were booing the same team that they embraced last year.  Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that the Saints high flying offense would be THIS bad.  I did think that Brees would have a drop off from last year…but by drop off, I didn’t mean become one of the bottom 5 in the league.

* The Red Sox kick off their series against Oakland tonight.  Every game is starting to look more like a must win with the Yankees only 2 back.  Keep an eye on this the final week.  Could get interesting.

*Week 4 Power Rankings are below…

Today’s Rundown 9/17

*Well if there was any question about whether the Chargers were a threat to the Patriots, it has been answered with an exclamation point. The Patriots dominated, absolutely wrecked, the San Diego Chargers last night 38-14. They played with a ticked off attitude the whole game and I would be very intimidated if I were any other team in their path to the Super Bowl. Tom Brady showed his emotions the entire game pumping his fists and tossing around expletives after big plays and scores.

*The Pats game capped off a wild week two in which football fans saw the Browns drop 51 points on their way to beating the stunned Bengals. The Raiders got jipped at the end and lost in overtime to the Broncos, who aren’t looking very good at this point. The Saints got thumped courtesy of the Bucs and the Packers look like they are a little more than just a playoff contender with a defense like that. I’ll have a full recap of the week tomorrow, after Monday Night’s game which showcases the Skins and the Eagles.

*As far as my picks are concerned: I picked 10 out 15 correct (after getting 13 out of 15 last Sunday), which is terrible and I got two right against the spread out of four, one wrong, and one tied. I’ll have my pick for the Skins-Eagles (versus the spread) later today.

*The Yankees took two out of three this weekend in Boston against the much-hated Red Sox. Last night’s 4-3 victory came courtesy of Mr. Clutch, Derek Jeter. Jeter belted a 3 run homer in the top of the eighth with two outs and the score tied at one apiece. The Yankees have a shot at taking the division if the Sox drop a few games between now and the end of the season. It is clear however that the Yankees have the psychological edge on the Sox again, and Boston fans know it.  See Buster Olney Column.

*College Football also had an exciting weekend with another top ten team getting dropped courtesy of an unranked squad. The Louisville Cardinals, who were ranked 9^th going into the game, lost in a shootout to instate rivals Kentucky. UCLA dropped from their 11 spot after getting drubbed by Utah and Nick Saban’s Alabama boys are back in the top 20 for the first time since 2005 after a thrilling upset over 16^th ranked Arkansas. Other noteable games were Florida defeating Tennessee, USC knocking off Nebraska, and of course my favorite; Notre Dame losing 38-0 to Michigan and dropping to an 0-3 record. A full recap of the college week, in addition to my updated power rankings will be up this afternoon.

Until then, enjoy your Monday morning.

Today’s Rundown 9/3

*Pedro Martinez returned for the New York Mets today and threw his 3000^th career strikeout in the process.  Martinez helped the Mets cruise to a 10-4 victory over the Reds and improve their record to 77-60.  Martinez pitched five innings, while throwing 76 pitches, striking out four, walking three, and giving up two runs.  The Mets now lead the division by five games over the Philadelphia Phillies. 

*While the Mets were winning, the team across town was losing to the Mariners by a score of 7-1.  The Yankees dropped their second straight game and the Mariners won their first game in ten contests.  To make matters worse, Roger Clemens elbow had some tightness and was taken for an MRI after the game.  The Mariners have cut the Yankees wildcard lead to one game, with two games remaining in the Bronx. 

*New York Giants crybaby defensive end Michael Strahan has ended his holdout and reported to Giants’ camp today.  The seven time pro bowler missed all of camp and all four preseason games, costing him over half a million dollars in fines.  Really makes no difference if he’s there or not because the Giants are going to be terrible.  If I were the running the Giants, I wouldn’t even want Strahan and his baggage back.  Save the money, the cap space, and get that loudmouth over the hill bum out of New York.  But what do I know. 

*The Cleveland Browns have selected Charlie Frye to be their starter for week one.  Yeah, Frye really is best for the future of the Browns.  Not the quarterback you drafted 22^nd overall and has all the potential.  Whatever, it’s the Browns.  I don’t know why I even bother reporting on them. 

*James Blake lost in five sets in the U.S. Open and Andy Roddick advanced in just two.  Roddick has to beat Feliciano Lopez Monday night and his reward is a matchup with No.1 seeded Roger Federer.  I heard that Federer guy is pretty good, and I also heard that he owns Roddick.  Yeah, I heard something along those lines. 

Today’s Rundown 9/1

*New England Patriots strong safety Rodney Harrison has been suspended for the first four games of the regular season for violating the league’s substance abuse policy. He claims to have never done steroids, but used a human growth hormone instead. The safety took full responsibility for his actions and admitted his guilt. In somewhat of a classy fashion, Harrison pleaded with the media to not bother his teammates with questions about his suspension because they know nothing. He said he took the growth hormones to help accelerate his healing process from previous injuries.

I don’t approve of what Harrison did, but I do understand his reasoning. The NFL is a tough league and you had better be playing as many games as possible if you want to keep a roster spot; doesn’t matter who you are. Again, I don’t condone taking any kind of hormones that are against the league policy, but I do understand where Harrison is coming from. I hope we don’t see more of this in the coming season.

*Alex Rodriguez helped the Yankees extend their wild card lead over the slumping Mariners to 2 games with a 9-6 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Arod had a hell of a day knocking his 45^th homerun out of the park along with driving in four runs. The Yankees are surging and the Mariners are sinking. They just lost their eighth straight game and are getting ready for a trip to the Bronx to face the Yanks. Its starting to look like the Yankees are not even worried about Seattle anymore and have their sights set on the Boston Red Sox. After their three game sweep of the Sox, the Yankees cut the lead to 5 games. The two teams have three games left against each other, in Boston. If the Yankees can cut the lead by 2 games heading into their series with the Sox, they’ll hold the division title in their own hands.

*Surprisingly, Maria Sharapova was eliminated in the second round by an 18 year old. That’s all I got. I don’t know anymore about it because I was watching college football all day, including arguably the biggest upset in college football history. I’ll have a full recap of the day later. Enjoy the rest of your night folks.

Today’s Rundown 7/30

*The sweep is complete. The Yankees have successfully swept the Red Sox, cutting their division lead to five games. Chien-Ming Wang pitched a gem this afternoon in a matchup that showcased him against the Sox’, Curt Schilling. The Yankees have now taken sole possession of the wild card spot as the Mariners have dropped their last five games, entering a 10 game road trip. The Yankees will play the Mariners in the Bronx ,September 4-6^th, in what is shaping up to be a pivotal matchup.

*It looks like Beckham is going to shut it down for the rest of the season after yet, another injury. This time, he has a sprained knee. I don’t mean to toot my own horn and bring credit to myself but… actually, that’s exactly what I mean to do. Check out what I wrote earlier this summer (July 17^th) before Beckham even set foot on an MLS field:

            “What if he doesn’t play well? What if he gets injured?

‘Oh well what-ifs apply in anything. You can’t think that way’. Yes, I can think that way. I know what-ifs apply in anything, but they are there for a reason. Because they HAPPEN. You can’t just assume the best. Hope for the best, plan for the worst is what wise people do to avoid complete disarray when things don’t go their way. So now let’s assume Beckham has a bad season or a bad injury. What spin does the MLS put on it then? Are you still going to attract the stars from Europe? Not a chance. So basically, the hype, the publicity, the mass advertising of Beckham is all based on assumption that he does great.

So did the Beckham experiment work? Absolutely not. Before you even BEGIN to form an argument about how this thing has worked, let me stop you. It hasn’t. One more thing. I don’t care where his “allegiance” is. If David Beckham plays for England after shutting it down in the MLS for the season, he will be one of the biggest frauds in recent memory. Move on. End of discussion.

*It’s now 7:03 PM eastern time and I am in a great mood. My Redskins will be playing their final preseason game against Jacksonville in less than an hour. Actually, this makes me feel very uneasy now that I think about it because Campbell is going to play and Portis might. Now I’ll be sweating bullets, fearing a catastrophic, worst case scenario injury that would only happen to a team that I pull for. Anyway, the college football regular season kicks off with LSU and Mississippi State. Normally, I wouldn’t be so psyched about this matchup but it’s the first game of the much awaited season, and I am stoked. Before the kickoff of both, I’m going to renew my subscription to Xbox Live and get back into the Madden world. Three day weekend coming up folks!

Today’s Rundown 7/29

A really quick rundown folks.. I’m working in DC on a special project this week so I haven’t had the flexibility to do what I want like I do at my own office. Bare with me. I’ll have a big feature article tonight and things should get back to normal this weekend and into next week when I go back to my comfortable surroundings.. Until then…

*My Yankees beat Red Sox in Game 1 of series last night (which wasn’t shown by ESPN for some strange reason and infuriated me). I slept well last night knowing that Sox fans must have be feeling that knife in their back when they saw Johnny Damon blast a 2 run homer en route to a 5-3 win. I drove home earlier listening to the radio and people talking about how the Sox were going to take it to the Yanks. I know it’s only game 1 of the series but it’s a good start.

*The USA Basketball got their revenge on Puerto Rico for handing them their worst loss ever in 2004. USA won with ease, 117-78. Lebron James had 21, Anthony had 17, and Kobe had 14.

*Ron Artest has applauded Michael Vick’s apology and wants to reach out. Hahaha. I think that’s the LAST thing Vick needs; to be seen hanging out with a “reaching out” Artest. Seriously, if I committed a crime, there are a couple of people I would not want to be seen with under any circumstances. Those people include O.J. Simpson, Britney Spears, and Ron Artest. There are many more who I could list…but I’m at work writing this all sneakily so I don’t have time.

Look for a feature article this evening after I get home. For now, be bored.

Today’s Rundown 7/28

In light of Michael Vick apologizing to everyone yesterday, I too, want to take this time out for my own, unwritten, off the top of my head apology:

I am, you know, sorry, you know, for not being able to..for being able to.. for not being able to, you know, have any posts the past few days. I’ve been, you know, really busy with work and … I didn’t have a lot of downtime. I, you know, will make sure I post more frequently from now on. (5 second pause) I have to. Thank you.

(Jokes aside, Vick’s apology was a good one and you should read it or watch it if you haven’t already.)

*Vick apologized to all and everyone yesterday after he formally pleaded guilty to dogfighting conspiracy charges. The apology was not prepared beforehand as it was clear that Vick had no notes present and was speaking on the whim. I personally didn’t see the apology until after work yesterday, but saw the entire clip (4 and a half minutes or so) and believed that Vick could not have been more sincere in asking for forgiveness. Of course, he probably wouldn’t be apologizing had he not been cornered into a place of guilt, but that’s neither here nor there. Vick’s apology is going to go a long way, in my estimation, for him restoring his public image to a certain degree. This is the second time in one summer that we have seen an athlete deliver a sincere and genuine speech, or in this case apology, without any prewritten notes. The first was when Michael Irvin delivered one of the most memorable Hall of Fame Induction speeches that I can remember. Vick appeared to be saddened, lost, and grounded after what has been a grueling four months. After scanning the sports waves this morning on my way to work, I found that I was not alone in feeling that Vick’s apology was genuine. Though this is only one step for what will need to be many, at least Vick took one in the right direction.

*Chicago Bears linebacker Lance Briggs crashed his $350,000 Lamborghini in Lake Forest, Illinois yesterday. Then he fled. Yes, you read correctly. He left his Lambo just like that. The reason for him fleeing the scene is not yet known, but one can only imagine. He later claimed that the car was his after reports surfaced that he had told police the car was stolen, initially. However, after speaking with police yesterday, he did confirm that he was the driver of the vehicle when it crashed. Briggs was charged with a misdemeanor for failure to properly notify of an accident. I’m not going to speculate on exactly what the reason was for Briggs fleeing the scene but it’s really saying something if a guy would rather leave a $350,000 car on the side of the road than deal with a potential (emphasis on “potential”) bigger problem with not the law, but Commissioner Roger Goodell. “$350,000 car or possible suspension? $350,000 car or possible suspension? Screw the car.”

*The Yankees got rocked by the Tigers yesterday, 16-0. I don’t really want to talk about it. I mean, it’s not like the Mariners have lost three straight and this would be the perfect opportunity to not only put the Tigers away, but also move into possession of the wild card. Yeah, not like anything was at stake Mike Mussina. Jerk.

*The Yankees-Red Sox series starts tonight in New York. It will showcase a matchup between Dice-K and Pettitte. I highly suggest for you, even if you’re not a baseball fan, to watch this series. It is one of the greatest rivalries in sports and always brings some form of excitement. Plus the Yankees are now reaching the point of desperation and the Sox would love nothing more than to put their most hated rival away for good. Tune in.

*Both Williams sisters advanced easily in the first round of the U.S. Open early this morning around 2:00 AM EST, when you were asleep, unless your name is Pacman Jones and you’re at a strip club “for the food”. Crazy Factoid: Serena Williams had a serve clocked at 126 mph. Think about how fast that is for a second. Unreal.

*The Cleveland Browns. Notice how I put this story last. Anyway, Brady Quinn will not be starting week 1. The starter will be either Charlie Frye or the other guy, Derrick Anderson or something. Quinn had the highest rating of the three and threw for three touchdowns, no interceptions in his two preseason games. Yes I know it was against second teams and third teams but the guy showed he understands what he’s doing. I don’t understand what exactly the Browns and Coach Romeo Crennell are gaining by sitting Quinn. Is it because he held out? Because that’s a dumb reason. Also, I don’t see a solid veteran starter ahead of Quinn that he could be learning from. Quinn was drafted to be the starter of that team and you’re kidding yourself if you think he won’t be starting by week five. So what are you really gaining by holding him out week one? Give yourself the best chance to win, and to do that, it’s getting Quinn the most experience he can get as quickly as possible. I don’t know why I’m trying to understand what the Browns are doing though; it is the Browns. That should be a cue for me to just stop trying right there. Oh, while I’m on the topic of franchises that don’t have a clue, The Raiders have still not signed JaMarcus Russell (the first overall pick taken in the draft if you’ve forgotten). The Raiders hope to have Russsell signed by December 2008 and in training camp before Vick is eligible to play again. Draft Russell high in your 2010 Fantasy Draft.