Music City Miracles

Jonathan Vilma Sues Roger Goodell

2012-05-17T19:27:57Z

NFL football cannot get here soon enough, so that we can actually have something on the field to talk about instead of this stupid bounty scandal. Look, I understand that it is bad for players to go our there and try to injure other players. That should not be a part of the game, but the fact is that it goes on in every locker room. The fact that Roger Goodell is making such an example out of the Saints is a little ridiculous in my opinion.

Now the tables have been turned on Goodell as Jonathan Vilma has decided to sue Goodell for slander according to multiple reports on Twitter. We live in a day in age where anyone can sue anyone else for just about anything, so it is way to early to know if this case will actually make it to court or not, but it is another PR black eye for the league.

I wonder if Goodell regrets at all the way he has gone about this. Truth be told, the only reason he has come down so hard on everyone involved in this situation is because the people involved lied to him. He could have punished them when he first learned about it, but he didn't. He gave them the chance to sweep it under the rug and the didn't. That made him mad.

The good news is that everyone, besides Saints fans of course, will pretty much forget about this once there is actual football being played on the field.

Tennessee Titans Daily Links: Any Chance To Shoehorn Nap Lajoie In There Edition

2012-05-17T18:00:34Z

Who, oh who, will win the Titans starting center spot. Could so many close calls be the challenge Amano needs to live up to his big contract, or will one of the youngsters jump up and unseat the weakest lineman left on the starting group.

Colin McCarthy put on six pounds in the off-season, returning to the 243 lbs he played at in 2009 at Miami. McCarthy's aim was to add strength and prevent injuries, and he feels like he's added the weight the right way thanks to the Titans' conditioning program.

Rob Bironas is lobbying for the Titans to retain FA long snapper Ken Amato, who has been the only long snapper he's worked with since joining the Titans in 2005. Currently, Beau Brinkley and Jake Ingram are the only guys on the roster with any LS experience at the college level.

Paul K says that Chris Johnson is the Titan facing the most pressure going into this season. He's got to prove last year was an aberration, or the Titans could think long and hard about whether they allow more of his contract to become guaranteed after the season. Hopefully having a full off-season in the Titans' training program, the upgrade to Hutchinson at guard and an improved set of threats in the passing game should make things easier for CJ. If not, then things really could get ugly next February.

I get what he's saying, but I just hate hearing this phrase from any front office member in any sport:

"It's very detailed," Webster said. "Stats are a part of it. But like I've said before, I'm not a huge stats guy."

Since the Dolphins decided to let him walk, veteran safety Yeremiah Bell has worked out with the Titans, Eagles, Jets and Chiefs. Now agent Drew Rosenhaus expects his client to sign with one of those teams within the next 24-hours.

If you've got $75,000 to $100,000 to spare, you could buy Lawrence Taylor's ring from Super Bowl XXV at auction. That's nice and all, but I'd way rather have the 1915 Cracker Jacks card of my favorite baseball player of all time, Nap Lajoie. Make sure to at least read about the fascinating 1910 race for the batting title between Lajoie and Ty Cobb.

Matt Bowen of NFP breaks-down a route I hope we see tons of this season: the TE Seam route as perfected by the Patriots. Jared Cook, and perhaps Taylor Thompson one day, was born to run that route 15 times a game.

Kenny Britt Doesn't Need the Preseason

2012-05-17T15:47:40Z

There was a lot of buzz yesterday with the announcement that Kenny Britt was indeed undergoing another knee surgery. To make us all feel better, Ruston Webster pointed out that Britt doesn't really need the preseason anyway:

"I don’t know if he’s going to be ready the first day of training camp or not," Webster said. "We’ll just have to wait and see. I do think he’ll be ready for the season, and if you remember, we went through this last year where he didn’t play preseason games or played the last preseason game and was ready to go. We know when we’re really going to need him — that’s when we line up against New England."

I remember last season we were all worried because Britt came to camp out of shape and missed most of camp because of his hamstring. He then went out in week 1 against the Sparkle Kitties and had 5 catches for 136 yards and 2 touchdowns. No one was talking about training camp after that performance.

Between the Posts 5/16/2012

2012-05-16T23:00:15Z

The Saints are going to leave a seat open for Sean Payton in team meetings and on the team bus this season. That is so cute.

Skechers has been ordered to pay $40 million in false advertising over those stupid Shape-ups shoes that they claimed were going to tone butt muscles by just walking around in them. Anyone who fell for that ad should be who gets fined.

This dude is pissed because a restaurant cut him off during and all you can eat fish fry. That is awesome.

Tennessee Titans Agree to Terms With Mike Martin

2012-05-16T20:44:33Z

The #Titans have agreed to terms on a four-year deal with DT Mike Martin, the team's third round pick. Deal is worth $2.72 million
— Jim Wyatt (@jwyattsports) May 16, 2012

Mike Martin, the player from this draft class than I am the most excited about, has agreed to his rookie contract. These contracts are not nearly the news story that they were before this new collective bargaining agreement. The deals are really pretty much just slotted now.

It is good, however, to get your class in as soon as possible so that they have the most time to work with the team. The Titans are moving quite a bit slower than a lot of the other teams in the league, there are several who have already signed their entire class, but they are not so far behind that it is going to be a problem once it is time to actually play football.

Kenny Britt Has Minor Knee Surgery Today

2012-05-16T19:15:56Z

August alerted you earlier in the week that there was a chance Kenny Britt would have to have an additional surgery on his knee. Jim Wyatt reports that Britt will indeed be undergoing that surgery today. Ruston Webster said that the procedure is not that uncommon, according to Wyatt, and it should only set Britt back a couple of weeks.

It sounds very similar to the procedure Derrick Morgan had before the season last year. Morgan was back on the field by week two. That should give all of us a little bit of hope that Britt will still be ready in plenty of time for the 2012 regular season.

This should also make you feel a little bit better about the Kendall Wright pick. The people that were against the pick pointed to the receiving corps with Britt on the field. While it still looks like he will be out there week 1, having Wright as an option makes the group not as scary without Britt.

Did Anyone Attend a Titans Caravan Event?

2012-05-16T16:00:53Z

Each summer the Tennessee Titans put on their caravan event where they spend a couple of weeks traveling around to some areas that are in the Mid-South but located outside of the greater Nashville area. This year it included a host of stops in Tennessee as well as stops in Kentucky and Alabama.

In year's past I had not payed that much attention to the event, but this year Paul Kuharsky ripped the event on his radio show before it started saying that they sent out a lot of players that would not be on the roster week 1. I think that is probably what prompted this paragraph in the wrap-up article from the Titans official site:

The best lineup of players in Titans Caravan history. Here's the proof: only one player who appeared was not a current starter or a special teams' standout with a Pro Bowl on their resume' (Rob Bironas and Marc Mariani). Who is that one player? Jake Locker, hardly a dud. Locker might well be a starter in 2012 and is going to be the face of the franchise in the years to come....The fan interest in Locker was rivaled by the first-ever Titans Caravan appearances of Chris Johnson, who joined Mariani and Kenny Britt for huge appearances in Huntsville and Florence, Ala.

I did get to a stop on purpose, but they were at my local Kroger when I stopped there on the way home one day last week. Did anyone go to one of these events and get to meet any of the players? If so, how was it?

Maybe William Vlachos Isn't the Answer for the Titans

2012-05-16T13:51:23Z

There is not anyone out there that is rooting for William Vlachos to make the Tennessee Titans roster more than I am. It would be really awesome to see a line that didn't have Eugene Amano in the middle of it, and you can never have enough players from the University of Alabama on your team.

I am a little bit concerned, however, after reading these comments from Vlachos:

"I've been watching film for a couple days and my jaw's on the floor," Vlachos said. "They're just so physical, the effort they bring every play is outstanding."

There is no doubt that the Titans had one of the best pass blocking offensive lines in the league last year, but pass blocking is not usually where a line shows up as physical. That term comes from run blocking and the offensive line got manhandled for most of the season there last season.

Maybe he was just watching David Stewart on every play.

And yes, I know that these comments from Vlachos have absolutely no bearing on whether or not he makes the team or can be an NFL center.