Rennie Curran is the subject of a short ESPN Page 2 piece on his charitable trip back to his familial homeland of Liberia. Nice work by Rennie to bring awareness to a cause that means so much to his family. As a quick aside, clicking on that article was the first time I'd read a Page 2 piece in around seven years, which is crazy because in the early 2000's they had the best roster of sports writers in the world: Hunter S. Thompson, Eric Neel, Ralph Wiley, Gregg Easterbrook (before his columns became a lazy, snooty Mad Libs), young Bill Simmons and I know I'm forgetting some others who passed through that corner of the internet. Now, it's lifeless husk serves as a reminder of why we can't have nice things on the internets. Da'Quan Bowers' (whose name always reminds me of Dukie from The Wire now...) stock is apparently plummeting, and it's not all about his medical issue, explains Adam Schefter (via Paul K):
"For starters, teams have medical questions about him and his knees. It's a real concern. Another front-office exec told me that his biggest questions about Bowers were not his medicals but his video. He watched the tape and didn't see what some others have. He said that of Bowers' 15 sacks last season, six came when he wasn't blocked and three others came from a certain kind of scheme -- so his 15 sacks last season are effectively down to six. The film also showed his effort was not consistent and his production was spotty.
"After listening to some people talk about Bowers, it will not surprise me if he falls out of the top 10 or even out of the top 20."
David Boclair discusses off-season conditioning during the lockout, and points out that at least Chris Johnson has an incredible reputation for always staying in shape. Kenny Britt, however, has to be one of the biggest concerns on the roster after he showed up to last year's OTAs so out of shape the team held him out of practices.
Michael McCann delivers today's recap of what could and couldn't go down in tomorrow's hearing for the Brady v. NFL case. Seems like there's a news one of these pieces every six hours these days, but McCann does the best job I've seen of relaying exactly what the players would have to convince Judge Susan Nelson of to win a preliminary injunction that effectively ends the lockout and requires the NFL to operate under last year's rules until the antitrust case is settled. To pull this off, the players will have to prove four key things to get the off-season back on track:• Show that the NFLPA* would likely win an antitrust trial
• Show that a lockout carries the threat of harm that can't be quantified monetarily
• Convince the judge that a preliminary injunction would not harm the NFL more than it helps the NFLPA
• Convince the judge that the public interest is best served by the injunction
The Colts worked out Andy Dalton. A pre-draft work-out doesn't mean a ton, but just the idea of the Colts getting an heir to Manning that I like as a prospect makes my stomach churn a little. Former-Titan Kevin Carter is hosting a charity event at the Palm in downtown Nashville where celebrities, most with Middle Tennessee connections, will be the waiters for a special dinner. Some of the waiters include Eddie George, Craig Hentrich, Derrick Mason, Brad Hopkins and many more. Matt Maiocco of CSNCalifonia.com has an interesting article ranking teams based upon their success in the draft over the past 5 years. The Packers and Saints lead the way, while the Titans are (not surprisingly) ranked a mediocre 17th. Wes Bunting tabs the boat-load of of prospects he sees as 1st round talent who could be available early in the 2nd. PFF tabs Anthony Fasano as one of their Secret Superstars, but the real thing to note here is that Fasano racked-up around 1/5 of his receiving yards last season against the Titans.
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