Henry only suspended four games

by | Jul 31, 2008 | NFL News

Chris Henry, who missed the first eight games of last season after being suspended for various legal issues, has been suspended for the first four of this season.

He can play in the final 12 – if he can find a team to sign him, according to the Associated Press. The Cincinnati Bengals released him after he was accused of punching a University of Cincinnati student and breaking his car window with a beer bottle.

The jury in the case couldn’t come to a verdict resulting in a mistrial. But to this point it appears as though Henry may have worn out his welcome in the NFL – there have been few reports of him getting tryouts. He’ll likely get a shot somewhere eventually, but as far as naming an NFL Douchebag (or is it douchbag?) of the Decade it’d be a tight vote between Henry, Adam “Don’t call me Pacman” Jones and Michael Vick.

Carter working out with Miami? Really?

by | Jul 31, 2008 | NFL Breaking News

Remember Quincy Carter?

Yeah, the guy Jerry Jones fell in love with a few years ago?

Apparently the Miami Dolphins aren’t happy with the quarterbacks they have in camp. The Palm Beach Post and other publications are reporting that they are working out the 30-year-old Carter, who has been out of the league since 2004.

Coach Tony Sparano told the paper it doesn’t mean he’s unhappy with John Beck, Chad Henne and Josh McCown (and why would he be unhappy with that trio of current and future stars?). How does Carter, whose previous stints include failure in the Canadian Football League and struggles with drugs – both during and after his NFL years – warrant another NFL shot when guys like Byron Leftwich and Daunte Culpepper are without jobs? Just curious.

Not that guys who struggle with drugs don’t deserve a second chance – they do. The bigger issue, in my eyes, is that when he played before – drugged or not – he was a mediocre NFL quarterback … at best.

Limbaugh wants to own an NFL team

by | Jul 31, 2008 | Business of Football

In a move that might make NFL executives queezy (but might give the patriarch of the Zoneblitz family a reason to watch the NFL again) Rush Limbaugh has expressed interest in buying the St. Louis Rams or another franchise.

The Huffington Post cites a Fox News St. Louis report in which Limbaugh said “It’s a dream to own part or all of a National Football League team.”

We’ve always thought Limbaugh was a blowhard who really enjoys listening to his own voice. And his Monday Night Football experience ended in controversy five years ago after just a few months. Not sure where we’d fall on that one. But he’d definitely make things interesting. Like Mark Cuban in the NBA or Al Davis in the NFL, who knows what he’d do or say to shake things up.

Report: Packers offer Favre $20M to stay retired

by | Jul 31, 2008 | NFL Breaking News

According to separate reports the Green Bay Packers have both talked internally about trading Brett Favre within the division and (according to www.620wtmj.com) offered the quarterback $20 million to stay retired.

Apparently the latter was to no avail – Jim Rome this afternoon cited ESPN in saying that Favre has chartered a flight to Green Bay.

Mark Murphy released a statement cited by WTMJ in which he said he and Favre had a nice visit. But it sounds like the split is getting uglier and uglier. Kind of sad… sort of.

Not everyone is abandoning RB-RB

by | Jul 30, 2008 | Fantasy Football

A few weeks ago Zoneblitz published a post suggesting that the strategy of stacking your fantasy football team with running backs the first two rounds is falling out of style. The post was linked to by a couple other blogs and earned a comment from Minneapolis fantasy guru Paul Charchian, who provided a more detailed version of his “do the opposite” strategy.

Zoneblitz stands by its “let the draft come to you” strategy. But in fairness to loyal traditionalists not everyone has decided to eschew that philosophy. In fact the folks at Fanhouse say the more people do the opposite by drafting wide receivers and quarterbacks first, the stronger the running back options that will be available in the second round.

He may have a point. And for the record, Zoneblitz isn’t suggesting that you automatically draft wideouts and quarterbacks first. If there are two players of equal skill available by all means, take the running back. But if the best running back available is the sixth or seventh ranked back and the top one or two wideouts or quarterbacks are still on the board, don’t be afraid to take a chance.

Now, back to our program.