Tuesday Thoughts

There were a few items in recent days that I found interesting from my vantage point. 

The Franchise Tag numbers contain a couple of glaring value propositions at two positions – tight end and kicker.  In the event a team was to have an impending free agent at one of these positions, the Tag value of $4.46M for a tight end and $2.48M for a kicker/punter, in my opinion, screams out for using it.  And that is happening with the kicker/punters.

With yesterday’s Tag placement by the Bengals on Shayne Graham, he becomes the second player at that position to be tagged, following the Falcons’ Michael Koenen.  Jason Hansen of the Lions may be next.   Although kickers and punters probably don’t have a very powerful lobby within the NFL Players Association, it appears they represent a group that can cheaply be prevented from pursuing free agency, at least for two consecutive years (if a team tried it three years in a row, it would have to pay the highest tender number, probably that of quarterbacks).  With a $123M Cap, teams can protect these valuable assets for two percent their Cap.  As my friend Ryan Longwell used to tell me, “Kickers are like lawyers; you never like them until you need one.” …

Wayne Huizenga had sort of an unofficial retirement press conference last week, having turned over the vast majority of ownership of the Dolphins to Steven Ross, who somehow in this morbid economy found close to $1 billion to buy the Dolphins and their stadium.  As most of the attention around the press conference revolved around whether Bill Parcells could or would leave the team, it felt like Huizenga and his contributions to the game received short shrift.

I do not know Huizenga, but I sat across from him and the Dolphins contingent at several NFL meetings.  He was always gracious, not only to the ownership level of people but to lesser ranks as well.  When he spoke, I thought he was extremely interesting and well versed in applying his business principles to the issues at hand.   He also was quick to roll his eyes or leave the room if the topic wore on or mired into some people talking to hear their own voices.   He had some obvious intellectual horsepower to go along with his zeal to win.  He spent liberally -- and sometimes not too wisely -- on the Dolphins’ payroll, with players (the Joey Porter deal was a head-scratcher at the time, with $20M guaranteed to an aging linebacker), coaches (Nick Saban) and administrators (Parcells). 

Dolphins face may not know it as well as they should, but they had as good an owner as there was.  Huizenga got it.

On television a week ago Sunday, the NBA had its two transcendent superstars, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, going head-to-head in Cleveland.  It was a made-for-TV moment, a modern-day Bird vs. Magic.  Around the same time, the NFL was showing its much-maligned all-star game, the Pro Bowl, with a collection of NFL stars going through the motions for three hours while their Hawaiian vacations were interrupted.  Well, guess what?

Kobe and LeBron drew about 6 million viewers.  The Pro Bowl drew 9 million! Yes, a meaningless and half-hearted exhibition with coaches in Hawaiian shirts and play-calls broadcast on the air outdrew the match-up between the two brightest basketball stars in the world.  The power of the NFL is astounding. ...

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