If you're looking for non-labor news this week, it's looking pretty slim. On the labor front you can find good stuff from Don Banks and Jim Trotter/Peter King at SI.com. Somehow I find it hilarious that King just now found out that the mediator being used is the same guy MLS used last year for their labor negotiations (to much acclaim from both sides, btw), when every single media account listed that as the first thing on the guy's resume after both parties agreed to mediation.
Darren Rovell at CNBC says NFL owners should go ahead and open their books for the union to review, arguing that it's the only way to create a truly fair formula for revenue sharing (the player's are understandably concerned that they're being asked to take less of the money because owners are taking on huge debt to overbuild new stadiums... we're looking at you Jerry Jones).
Behind the paywall at TitansInsider.com Darren McFarland says he's hearing whispers that some folks at Baptist Sports Park are crushing hard on Jake Locker and Colin Kaepernick. I'm not putting stock in anything of this sort right now because guys haven't had their pro days or been invited for visits to the team's facility. Still, I must say that my stomach churns at the prospect of getting either guy because they're just so unpolished compared to several other guys in this draft. Locker I could stomach in the second round, but not if Ponder or Dalton are there. Kaepernick just feels like another Tavaris Jackson/Omar Jacobs/a million other guys guy who coaches always think they can groom, when in reality it's almost impossible to find a QB who improves that much in such fundamental areas at the pro level. One other related note: Terry McCormick isn't reporting any specific chatter, but he does point out that while Tavaris Jackson was at Arkansas (before he transferred to Alambama St.), he was teammates with current Titans QB coach, and former Arkansas reserve QB, Dowell Loggains.
UT Chattanooga alum Buster Skrine is getting a lot more looks around the league after putting up the fastest 40 time at the combine. Skrine ran 4.29 and 4.36 seconds, just missing CJ2k's record of 4.24. Skrine did, however, set a much more obscure record: fastest player to win Gramsey's heart.
Former-Titans Kyle Vanden Bosch and Keith Bulluck are in town working out at D-1 in Franklin. Bulluck is a free agent this off-season, and I'd still argue that he would be a short-term good addition to our LB corps even if he isn't what he used to be back in the day.
While he's here working out, KVB has been securing a location back in Detroit for his team to work out in the event of a lockout.
I've watched a little of the UFL, and saying that an NFL lockout would help the UFL is like saying the price of gasoline rising helps propane sales. The UFL isn't going to get big in the US as a fall league. The only other sports leagues that would really seem a boom are the MLB playoffs and college football. The USFL was the last alternative league to the NFL that even vaguely had a shot to solidify a spot in the market, but Donald Trump ran that thing into the ground. Since then, the NFL has just become too big and too popular to be messed with.
One of SB Nation's writers has the Titans taking Nick Fairley. There's no way he falls that far without failing a drug test or something like that, but if he did he'd have to be out pick in a heartbeat.
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