Panthers rookie QB Clausen will compete for starting job

The Carolina Panthers rookie quarterback Jimmy Clausen is not as hot topic as some other quarterbacks from the same round of the 2010 NFL Draft. Being compared to No.1 first overall draft pick Sam Bradford and the most high-profile Tim Tebow, Clausen has always been ignored when people are talking about the most prominent rookie quarterbacks. However, the Brett Favre jersey lover will possibly attract most attention when the regular season begins because he may be the first rookie quarterback of his class to get a starting job.

The Panthers had second-year quarterback Matt Moore replace starting quarterback Jake Delhomme late in 2009 season. While Moore did not make any significant mistake as a replacement, he neither showed much talent in dealing with the starting role. He is too young and has little more experience than a rookie quarterback like Clausen. With Delhomme leaving to put on Minnesota Vikings jersey, the Panthers do not have many choices in starting quarterback, and their best choice is one of the two young quarterbacks. So a competition between Moore and Clausen is inevitable any way.

So Clausen will enter the training camp to compete for a starting job. No matter who wins the job at last, the Panthers will just get a clearer view of both quarterbacks. The winner must be the stronger one and will give the team more chance to win.

Steelers OLB Woodley is upset about contract talks

The Pittsburgh Steelers have not made any obvious posture on whether they are going to offer a contract extension to their Pro Bowl offensive linebacker LaMarr Woodley. By so far, they have only offered him a one-year restricted free agent tender, which will pay the fourth-year veteran $550,000 in base salary this season, no wonder Woodley said it more than once that he’d like to try his chance of putting on Saints jersey to play for another Super Bowl winning team.

"It’s kind of jacked up," Woodley told Yahoo! Sports. "Everything I’ve ever done for the Steelers, on and off the field, has been positive. Sometimes you don’t get the same thing back in return. I’m not going to lie—I was a little disappointed that they didn’t offer anything at all. I felt that was a little weird. I guess they decided they’re going to sit back and wait for the CBA and all that to play out.”

Woodley finished last season with 13.5 sacks, six passes defended, one force fumble, one fumble recovery and one touchdown, and was previously confident that he would get a good contract extension for the new season. But the team’s hesitance disappointed him. Perhaps the Steelers should learn how the Vikings treat their starting quarterback in Favre jersey to retain their cornerstone players.

JaMarcus Russell still wants to stay in NFL

Although it seems that quarterback JaMarcus Russell has run out of his chances to join a team, the three years veteran still keeps his hope alive for staying with the league. And in order to stay, he even chose to turn down offers from other league, such as the United Football League.

Along with several other unemployed NFL players, Russell is listed on the Omaha Nighthawks' "provisional roster" after he was released by the Oakland Raiders in early offseason. The former first overall draft pick did not prove anything in his three-year tenure with the team. Weight issues and general ineffectiveness on the field caused him to lose favors with all supporters and is not considered one of the biggest draft pick bust. To make things worse, Russell was involved in a legal trouble last week, preventing even more teams from contacting him for possible cooperation.

Russell was last seen in a Brett Favre jersey with his lawyer, who has expressed confidence that the strong-armed former LSU star will be exonerated. Whatever, we will see if he can make it on July 20, when Russell is going to appear on court for a trial.

Dolphins NG Ferguson leaves NFL suspension behind by quitting football

The Miami Dolphins nose guard Jason Ferguson is no longer worrying about the eight-game suspension he received from the National Football League. He is now actually an ex-NFL player as he has announced to retire on Thursday, saying farewell to the league and ending his 13-season career.

“You get what you put into this game," Ferguson said. "I would like to thank my family, the fans and the organizations that I have been a part of for their continued support throughout my career, it’s been an absolute blessing to play this long. I have built a lot of relationships, you develop an extended family playing this game; I would like to thank that extended family, the teammates, the coaches, the support staffs that have all played a part of a great ride.”

Finishing his career with 569 tackles, 21 1/2 sacks, 12 pass deflections, six forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries, Ferguson now feels relaxed and said he was going to watch some NFL games this regular season. He could be seen in his favorite Terry Bradshaw jersey while his wife and kids could be wearing Brett Favre jerseys as they are all loyal Vikings fans.

Cardinals added rookie QB Skelton officially to roster

By signing him to a four-year, $1.97 million contract, the Arizona Cardinals added officially the fifth-round draft pick John Skelton to the team’s roster on Wednesday. By signing on the documents, the rookie contract was immediately paid $182,000 as signing bonus. It was absolutely a standard offer for a fifth-round draft pick, and Skelton now has four years to improve his value before asking for a more lucrative contract from the team.

By accepting the terms on the rookie contract, Skelton agreed to receive the standard base salaries of $320,000, $405,000, $490,000 and $575,000 as well as a fourth-year escalator clause that can significantly boost the maximum value of the deal. The former Fordham local football star was often seen in a Brett Favre jersey and using his strong arm to throw balls in his backyard when at home. At the height of 6 feet 5 and weighing 243 pounds, Skelton used to make appearance in the East-West Shrine all-star game.

Skelton’s statistics in college football career were 9,923 passing yards, 69 touchdowns and 36 interceptions with a 58.8 completion percentage. In 2009 season only, he passed for 2,708 yards, 26 touchdowns and 10 interceptions with a 64.4 completion percentage. It’s very likely for the rookie to earn a backup role in this upcoming 2010 season.

Dolphins want to bring LB Taylor back to Miami

Although the Miami Dolphins just did not re-sign linebacker Jason Taylor when he became an unrestricted free agent and allowed him to sign with another NFL team that will return in regular season to play against Taylor’s former team, the Dolphins now seem to regret for the wrong decision and showed intention to bring the linebacker back to Miami, to receive the honor of being a member of the team’s Ring of Honor.

It was said by former Dolphins receiver Nat Moore, who will be a member of the selection committee. At least Moore’s words would clear Taylor’s worries on what response he would receive from his former fans when his current team New York Jets visits the Dolphins this September.

"Hopefully, some of the things I've done down here will earn me some equity,'' Taylor said."But it's the Dolphins playing the Jets and I won't expect much. My wife will be there, so she'll cheer wearing her favorite Brett Favre jersey. I've got a few friends I'm going to buy tickets for, so they'll cheer.'"

Besides, there were a lot of fans hoping the Dolphins to resign Taylor during this offseason and they won’t blame Taylor for leaving them. These fans will definitely offer some cheers for Taylor during the game.

Veteran LB Antonio Pierce retired to start new career

Instead of putting on his former New York Giants uniform, unrestricted free agent linebacker Antonio Pierce was wearing his favorite Michael Irvin jersey when he announced that he was going to retire after spending nine years in the National Football League. He also promised that he would not disappear from the league as he had got a job from ESPN and will appear on NFL Live program from time to time.

Pierce had been with the Giants for five seasons since 2005 and used to be the team’s defensive captain and made great contribution to Giants’ Super Bowl win over the New England Patriots in 2008. However, he showed significant setback last season and played in only 9 regular season games, finishing the season with 55 tackles and only 1 sack. As a result, he was released by the Giants in early February.

Before joining the Giants, Pierce spent his first four NFL seasons with the Washington Redskins and established his fame of being an aggressive linebacker. His career numbers include 137 games, seven playoff games, 687 tackles, 9 sacks and seven interceptions.

Rookie WR Edwards received multi-year contract from Panthers

The Carolina Panthers confirmed the value of rookie wide receiver Armanti Edwards by signing him to a three-year contract on Thursday, three months after they drafted the former Appalachian State star college player with a 89th overall pick. During the three months of observation, they got a great impression of the rookie’s versatility.

Aiming at putting on his favorite Saints jersey to join the champion team, Edwards worked hard at college to be an excellent quarterback. During his college football career, Edwards totally completed 768 of 1,180 passes for 10,392 yards and 74 touchdowns with 33 interceptions and rushed for 4,361 yards and 65 touchdowns on 755 carries, becoming the first player in NCAA Division I history to pass for more than 10,000 yards and rush for more than 4,000 yards. However, the Saints did not show much favor in Edwards and let the Panthers get him in the middle of second round.

Despite Edwards’ great performance as a college quarterback, the Panthers decided to convert him into a wide receiver, so Edwards’ main job during offseason workouts was to learn catching balls. They seemed to be satisfied with the rookie’s smooth switch and is now planning to try him as a punt returner on special-teams in training camp.

Steelers WR Ward wants to retire as a Steeler

At age 34, the Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward has been playing with the team for 12 seasons and is ready to entering his 13th season. During a recent interview, he made it clear that he would play with the Steelers for as long as he could. If he retires, he would only like to retire as a Steeler.

Ward is now working hard to prepare for his 13th NFL season. He is on a strict diet and workout program, which includes time spent in a hyperbaric chamber. By so far, he is feeling good with his conditioning and is confident that the Steelers will have a much better season this year, although the team will have to start the new season with a less experienced starting quarterback than Ben Roethlisberger, who is suspended for the first six games of 2010 NFL season because of inappropriate off field behaviors.

Ward’s favorite player, however, is a former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver, and he was often seen in a No. 88 Michael Irvin jersey when not with the Steelers. Ward used to say that he admires Irvin for the Hall of Famer’s greatness in football and life-long loyalty to his former team, and Ward would like to follow Irvin’s example to stay with the Steelers till the least second of his NFL career.

QB Russell’s career is threatened by his off-field trouble

The former Oakland Raiders starting quarterback JaMarcus Russell recently added some more obstacles to his NFL future by getting arrested for possession of codeine. The former first overall draft pick had been already devaluated after being cut by the Raiders but still had chance to negotiate with some weak teams interested in his talents. However, the recent legal trouble just caused all teams to shy away.

According to recent reports, Russell attracted more concerns on his incompetence as a quarterback. Previously, there were still reports saying that he could have chance to put on Saints jersey if he was willing to play as backup to Drew Brees. But now the Saints definitely have crossed his name off from the list of their options in backup quarterback. Nevertheless, it does not necessarily mean the end of Russell’s football career.

Russell could follow the example of former Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams, who also had drug issues but found refuge by joining a Canadian Football League. And it was reported that Russell has already attracted attention from a CFL team, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, who like to add Russell so that they could draw more attention and fans.

Colts safety Bullitt begins to attract more attention

As a fourth year veteran, the Indianapolis Colts veteran safety Melvin Bullitt was previously known by little and seldom appeared to attract much attention. However, as most of this offseason has passed, people began to notice that Bullitt is now a key role of the team’s defense.

Bullitt has solidified the safety position as a hard-nosed tackler while former NFL Defensive Player of the Year Bob Sanders had to miss games and workouts with various injuries. Starting 21 games over the past two season, Bullitt never disappointed coaches when he was needed as he can do anything he was asked to do the best. Spending most of past three seasons as backup role, Bullitt has also been expecting more playing time. He resembles a lot his favorite NFL player, Archie Manning as he is always calm with whatever situation he is in. He collected a lot of Archie Manning jerseys when he was a young boy and he is now always wearing one to remind himself of how his idol dealt with career problems.

Bullitt believes that he can eventually be recognized as long as he does what he needs to do the best. He is proved to be right with that attitude. The Colts are not seriously considering giving him the starting job while Sanders will miss most of the 2010 season.

Late Bengals WR had head injury before death

A lot of people regretted when late Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry died after an accident in his hometown. When we almost forget about this story, there came to be a report saying that Henry already had a head injury and it might affected his mental state and behavior and caused him to fall from a truck.

The tragedy happened after Henry had a quarrel with his fiancée, who started a pickup truck to drive away in anger and did not know that Henry jumped up into the back of the truck. Then Henry lost his balance and fell out, having his head hit on the ground. A Passer-by in Minnesota Vikings jersey found Henry and sent him to hospital immediately but the young man did not open his eyes again.

According to a result of a research done by researchers at West Virginia University, Henry already had chronic traumatic encephalopathy before the accident. Researchers said that that brain disease is not necessarily related to a concussion, which was never diagnosed on Henry during his NFL career, and the disease is always caused by multiple head impacts and is often found in professional football players.

Working at home could be hard, too

Many people may think those earning money by working at home could have much easier life than themselves. But not all at-home jobs are easy and cost only brain cells. But considering that you can have your own time schedule so that you will not miss the NFL season and waste your money on Brett Favre jersey, working at home is still a better idea than commuting everyday to workplace.

Self-employed massage therapists should be taken as manual workers and their job really requires of hard physical efforts as well as good techniques. But in modern society, therapists are popular and needed by many people as they can help clients reduce stress, relax overworked muscles and recover from injury through various massage techniques. Still, manual workers earn much less than brainworker and a massage therapists average annual salary is around $40,000.

Comparing to massage therapist, self-employed customer service representatives is even a harder at-home job as we all know dealing with complaining customers is far from easy to do. Besides, companies hire at-home customer service representatives to cut cost so doing such a job means you earn less than those working in company offices. Their average annual salary is about $32,000.

Narcotics caused couple to sell their kid for $25

Two women met a couple outside of Wal-Mart on Wednesday morning. To their surprise, the couple told them that they were willing to sell their baby for only $25. The little baby was in a large Minnesota Vikings jersey and deep in sleep, unaware of what was happening around it. Fortunately the two women were kind and smart enough and finally saved the baby from its parents, who were under the influence of narcotics.

Anyone who came across to such happening would thought the couple were joking, and so did the two women, but they found that the father of the child was too persistent to be joking and they got to know what was happening must be insane. They talked with the couple, pretending to be interested in the deal, and got to know enough information for tracking the couple to their home. After saying goodbye to the couple, the two women called the police, who arrived at the couple’s home and found that both the baby’s father and mother were under the influence of narcotics.

After being charged, the mother of the kid admitted that she had breastfed the infant even when she was taking drugs. Both of the couple were charged with child endangerment and being under the influence of narcotics, and the kid was sent to hospital for health examination.

Some snacks you can enjoy without worries

I know it’s important to stick with a diet plan if I want to get rid of my extra weight to fit a real lady fan’s Archie Manning jersey, but I just can’t help stopping eating snacks. I’ve always been looking for some low-calories snacks that I can enjoy without worries on adding fat, and I do have found quite a few and I’m glad to share a list of them.

List A is for snacks holding less than 100 calories: 6-oz container Yoplait Light Red Velvet Cake Yogurt, holding 100 calories; 6 squares dark Bubble Chocolate, holding 100 calories; 4-oz cup Mott’s Health Harvest Summer Strawberry Sauce with 1 tbsp walnuts and a dash of apple pie spice, holding 98 calories; 21 mini-marshmallows with 1/3 cup Golden Grahams, holding calories; 6-inch tortilla with 1 tbsp salsa and 1 wedge The Laughing Cow Light Queso Fresco & Chipotle, 91 calories; Smartfood White Cheddar Cheese Flavored Popcorn, 100 calories, 1 cup fruit salad topped with 1 tbsp Cool Whip free, 98 calories.

List B is for snacks with even lower calories and it includes much fewer options. As far as I know, Crispy Green Freeze-Dried Pears hold only 39 calories, 1 Jello-O Sugar-Free Gelatin Snack with 1/4 cup whipped cream hold 49 calories and 10 strawberries rolled in confectioners’ sugar hold 71 calories.

Broncos CB Bailey is still waiting for contract extension

The Denver Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey is now in his final year of his current contract with the team. The seven-year, $63 million contract is to expire following the 2010 season, so it’s reasonable for the 32-year-old cornerback to worry about the contract extension.

"Are we disappointed the Broncos have not approached us about a contract extension? Obviously, we are," Bailey's agent Jack Reale told the Post. "A player of Champ's caliber deserves to have the option of an extended contract. This is a guy who essentially was a six-time Pro Bowler [if not for an injury in 2008] in his six years there."

However, the Broncos do not seem likely to give the extension in near future. After all, Bailey is turning 32 years old and the team is still unsure whether he can perform well in the 2010 season, let alone the following seasons. Even if Bailey threatened that he was going to put on New Orleans Saints jersey, the team will not mind much. If they do have to trade Bailey to the Saints, I guess they would be glad to ask for a younger cornerback in return.

Rookie RB McKnight received lucrative contract from Jets

The New York Jets made announcement on Tuesday that they have signed fourth-round draft pick, rookie running back Joe McKnight to a four-year contract that will pay McKnight a total base salary of nearly $2.36 million. The deal was considered a rare one a rookie can receive from his first NFL team.

Growing up as a faithful New Orleans Saints fan, McKnight previously hoped to join the defending champion team and put on the number 8 that used to be on his beloved Archie Manning jersey. However, he ended up wearing 25 with the Jets. So the big contract could also be signed to prevent McKnight from signing with another team. Although he was drafted 112th overall, McKnight’s performance during college was rather impressive. He rushed for 2,213 career yards at USC with 13 touchdowns and 66 catches for 542 yards.

It was weird McKnight was not picked by other team in higher round, and the Jets were really lucky. They may feel so and that was why they are willing to the rookie a base salary of $320,000 in his first season. Good player is worth good price.

How much do you have to save for a child?

You could hardly believe how much you have to spend on raising a child nowadays. But research shows that you need to save every possible penny if you are planning to have a child in near future. No cigarettes, no club activity, no out dinner and even no Terry Bradshaw jersey even if you are eager to have one to watch your beloved team playing football game. Oh, yeah watch it on TV instead of buying the tickets.

According to recent research, raising a child to maturity will cost about $200,000 in nowadays. The costs include expenses on child care, education, health care, transportation and housing. Among these expenses, child care accounts for 17% of the total expenses, education accounts for 16% and housing makes up 30%. The money spent on housing is mainly used to add an extra bedroom for the child. The $200,000 only covers the spending on a kid under age 17, and your financial support to your kid before he/she lives independently could be another huge expense.

The high cost could be a good reason to explain the popularity of DINK family and it also supports DINK people’s opinion on their life style. For those who look forward to traditional family life, the high cost could serve as a strong motivation for them to work even harder.

Vikings Fans are raising money to help gulf residents

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has attracted a lot of attention from the world, and a lot of people and groups are making their effort to help recover the communities there. Following the New Orleans Saints who visited the communities, the Minnesota Vikings fans are also raising money for the recovery.

According to reports, an online community of Vikings fans is selling members’ precious collection of Vikings products to raise money to help gulf residents recover from the oil spill. The autographed Brett Favre jerseys are most popular among the thousands of items related to Vikings. One such jersey on auction was bought by a long-time fan at a high price of $1,000. Some other jerseys of other Vikings players were bought at different prices. By doing so, the community hopes to raise as much as $50,000 to donate to the gulf recovery groups.

There are also other NFL teams doing what they can do to help these unfortunate residents. Even President Obama made statement on his attitude toward the incident and BP, the company who caused the oil spill. By so far, there has not been confirmative or apologetic claim from UK government and anger of Americans is increasing.

Peyton Manning returned to practice from neck injury

As the Indianapolis Colts opened their first offseason minicamp on Friday, we were glad to see the starting quarterback Peyton Manning also participate in most parts of the workouts. It seems the neck problem is no longer bothering him and the leading role of Colts was ready to start a new wonderful season.

“I’m out here throwing and I’ll no longer have to get the treatment that I’ve been getting for the last four years. It’s a great relief,” Manning said Friday, assuring his fans that there is nothing to worry about his neck. “All my symptoms and issues that I’ve been dealing with for the last four years have subsided.”

Returning of Peyton lit up the hopes of Colts winning the Super Bowl XLV championship. The team lost the Super Bowl XLIV to the New Orleans Saints in February. Talking about the loss to the former team of his father, Archie Manning, Peyton said that he was grateful for father’s support and felt regretful for the loss. But he promised that he would win the new competition in 2011. He joked that his father had got ready to put on his Archie Manning jersey for celebration of son’s third Super Bowl victory.