Around the NFL - 2009

[ice grillin you]

A Coast Guard official said the search for three men lost at sea in Florida will be suspended around 6:30 p.m. ET Tuesday.

The search for Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper, free-agent lineman Corey Smith and former college player William Bleakley entered its third day Tuesday. They have been missing since their boat overturned Saturday afternoon.

Officials said their search was aided by information from Nick Schuyler, who was rescued Monday clutching the boat's hull. The Coast Guard said searchers spotted the 24-year-old former University of South Florida football player off the coast of Florida from a half-mile away and that he helped himself into a small rescue boat.

Schuyler said the four men put on life vests after the boat capsized Saturday. They swam under the boat and were able to recover their life vests. They stayed together for some time, yet it remains unclear when and how they got separated.

[phattymatty]

i heard cooper and smith were claimed by the dolphins.

[PhillyPhreak54]

i heard cooper and smith were claimed by the dolphins.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

[General_Failure]

They actually swam to Cuba to break free of these terrible contracts that shackle them to capitalism.

[PhillyPhreak54]

CARDINALS STIFF FORMER COACHES OUT OF SUPER BOWL BONUSES
Posted by Mike Florio on March 3, 2009, 4:52 p.m.

Lest anyone think that our position regarding free-agent quarterback Kurt Warner arises from some sort of homerish tendencies toward the team with a red parakeet on its helmet, think again.

We've been saying for weeks that the Cardinals' blind-squirrel-on-acorn trip to the Super Bowl doesn't make a bad organization into a good one.

And, yeah, the Cardinals are still a bad organization.

Multiple league sources tell us that assistant coaches who left the team after the season ended have been stiffed out of Super Bowl bonuses.

Though we're not sure whether the individual employment contracts call for the payments or whether these are amounts that teams pay as a matter of policy or practice, the point is that these men didn't get paid money arising from the Super Bowl appearance that was paid to guys who are still employed.

Frugality is not a new dynamic in the desert.  As former Cardinals safety Robert Griffith told Michael Silver, then of SI.com, in 2007, "They're all show.  They're a facade.  They say, 'We've got the nicest stadium in North America' — and they do.  But everything else is to the penny."

Griffith provided two examples to Silver.  "When we're not there on Tuesdays," Griffith said, "they put a lock on the Gatorade fridge in the locker room."

The other example came from what was in Griffith's signing bonus check.  Or, more accurately, what wasn't in it.

"The Fed Ex [to send him the contract] cost $14.11 or something, and when I got my check, they'd deducted it — the check was for like $499,985.89, or whatever.  That's how they do sh-t in Arizona.  That's how they run their business!"

Our advice to Cardinals fans?  Enjoy the climate-controlled temperature of the stadium and the video screens and the sound system and whatever food they sell there, because if you show up on Sundays suddenly expecting to see a winning team, you're going to be disappointed.

Unless you're rooting for the visitors.

Don't let Banner and Lurie hear about this....

[General_Failure]

Banner and Lurie wil never have to worry about it again anyway.

[SD_Eagle5]

i heard cooper and smith were claimed by the dolphins.

lol

[SD_Eagle5]

Denver:

-- Dawkins
-- Buckhalter
-- Gaffney
-- J.J. Arrington (Cardinals RB)
-- Renaldo Hill (Dolphins FS)
-- Andra Davis (Browns LB)
-- Darrell Reid (Colts DT)
-- Lonnie Paxton (Patriots LS)
-- David Anderson (Texans WR -- offer sheet)

Add Lamont Jordan to the list

[Seabiscuit36]

i heard cooper and smith were claimed by the dolphins.

i literally spit out my beer reading this, POTY

[ice grillin you]

i heard cooper and smith were claimed by the dolphins.

i literally spit out my beer reading this, POTY

predictable and it was on pft monday

[Eagaholic]

I thought it was the Eagles that went after the washed up players

[Munson]

Now you're just dredging the bottom with that comment.

[hunt]

Denver:

-- Dawkins
-- Buckhalter
-- Gaffney
-- J.J. Arrington (Cardinals RB)
-- Renaldo Hill (Dolphins FS)
-- Andra Davis (Browns LB)
-- Darrell Reid (Colts DT)
-- Lonnie Paxton (Patriots LS)
-- David Anderson (Texans WR -- offer sheet)

Add Lamont Jordan to the list

so a couple of denver's injury prone rb's from last season will most likely become available...selvin young, andre hall, ryan torain, etc.  i imagine they'll hang onto hillis.

[Diomedes]

... dredging the bottom...

You don't dredge anywhere else, Munron.

[PhillyPhreak54]

REPORT: THE THREE MISSING BOATERS TOOK OFF THEIR LIFE VESTS
Posted by Mike Florio on March 4, 2009, 1:28 p.m.

Rarely if ever do I struggle to start writing one of these items.  But I've spent the past several minutes at a complete loss for words.

Apparently, Nick Schuyler has informed authorities that each of the other three men who were on the 21-foot fishing boat that capsized off the Gulf Coast of Florida voluntarily removed their life jackets.

Within two to four hours after the boat flipped, one of the two NFL players, Marquis Cooper of the Raiders and Corey Smith of the Lions, removed his life jacket and allowed himself to drift out to sea.

Then, a few hours later, the other NFL player did the same.

Finally, on Monday morning, Bleakley thought he saw a light in the distance.  So he removed his life jacket and swam to it in an effort to get help.

"I think he was delusional to think he could swim someplace," Bob Bleakley said.

This news makes the tragedy even more horrific.  If they only had stayed together on the hull of the boat, they all would have been saved.

But the psychological burdens of such circumstances are surely very heavy, and reality like becomes twisted and distorted very quickly.

So, again, pray for the families of the men who were lost.  But also pray for Nick Schuyler, who will carry the guilt that goes along with being the only survivor of the tragedy, and that goes along with the fact he wasn't able to convince three of his friends to refuse to surrender.

Goddamn...that's terrible.