Friday, July 9, 2010

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.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

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.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

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.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

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.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

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.

Monday, June 28, 2010

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.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

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.