Cultural Cuisinart

According to SI.com, Jason Taylor and the Dolphins have pretty much severed ties completely. This doesn't surprise me - I know that Parcells was livid about Taylor participating in Dancing With The Stars, instead of doing a traditional workout. Taylor is on record recently talking about his post-football career (he wants to be an actor). He wants to win, but the Dolphins are in a rebuilding year and won't be close to contention, so I'm not sure what he would get out of another season with them. This is definitely his last year, and you have to question how much his heart is going to be in this at all.

Also from SI.com Don Banks discussing 10 off-season questions about various NFL issues. The one that intrigues me the most is "2. Is JaMarcus Russell ready for his close-up in Oakland?" I personally don't think Russell is ready for his close-up. Holding out last season was stupid and incredibly short-sighted - for a few more pennies (really, what's another million or so), Russell sabotaged his chance to participate in critical learning experiences like training camp. He also sabotaged his opportunity to start earlier in the season (in fact he could have started from the beginning of the season perhaps). It's common knowledge that Russell was going to be a work in progress - he just wasn't NFL ready right out of college. He needed that playing time to get to the level where he can win games. Now he's in a situation where he's not a rookie anymore (and therefore will have elevated expectations put on him), but hasn't had as much time to develop his skills as he needed. Stupid stupid stupid.

The smart thing would've been for Russell to structure a contract with bonuses based on playing time (say 6-8 games or more during the regular season) and then shown up on time, hoping to compete for the starting job from day 1. Holding out wasn't the smart thing to do, and personally made me respect him less. It was selfish and ended up not only hurting the team, but himself. Instead of being eager to get in and prove his ability and love for the game, Russell demonstrated that he was more interested in squeezing another million bucks for free. I believe the NFL really really needs to move towards rookie salary caps, to avoid crap like this - a rookie with no proven ability in the NFL makes more in guaranteed money than a large chunk of starters around the league who are proven performers.

In other news Chris Cooley is marrying the cheerleader who was fired for dating him. I'm sorry, maybe Cooley is a nice guy, but he's not a very good writer. Check out this brilliant piece of prose:

Christy stepped through my back door two Julys ago. She walked into the house like she had climbed out of a poster in my high school bedroom. Past fashionably late, she had given me way too much time to sit and drink, and I knew it would be hard not to make an ass out of myself. By the time I was face to face with my favorite Redskins cheerleader, all I could muster was a shrugged shoulder handshake.

The line about climbing out of a poster cracks me up to no end. It reads like a cheeseball letter to Penthouse. He goes on to tell how the girl pretty much came over to his house with the intent of seducing him. At the end of the "article" (if you can call a fluff piece about how much of a hot babe one's fiancee is an article) we are encouraged to visit Cooley's personal blog where "he gets awesome all the time." Ha!