Star One Smart Blog's

We're entering the middle rounds of Free Agency, and the Titans haven't made any moves, and have lost a couple of decent players throught FA.

Bill Bennett signed with the St. Louis Rams, and Travis Henry was taken by the Broncos. Both players had decent seasons (although Bennett was far from a stellar receiver...his new contract puts him in third string on the Ram's roster.) Travis Henry is a few tokes away from a year's suspension under the league's Substance Abuse policy. With the Pac nonsense, I guess the Titans are gun shy about signing turds, now.

There were rumors Kevin Carter was looking at the Titans, but he signed with Tampa Bay, yesterday.

More rumors put Donté Stallworth visiting Nashville, if the Pats can't sign him first. Rumors are circulating over his substance abuse issues...that's a major theme, this year, for some reason....

Oh, yeah; we did re-ink Kerry Collins to a backup roll; that's a relief...(!)

Some fans are antsy, wondering why we haven't opened up the bank vault and signed some overpriced Free Agents. After all, we have Vince Young; why shouldn't players want to come and work with him? Could it be that...Tennessee is Karmalized?

We have this PacMan Jones thing hanging around our necks like some stinking albatross. We have the shades of Steve McNair pounding on the Titan's workout room door, being denied entry. We have remembrances of little Billy Voleck squawking all the way to the airport, on his way out of town.

Then, some people remember Eddie George, and the Great Salary Cap purges of Floyd Reeses's creation. Some think Floyd was let go for the wrong reasons (Pac notwithstanding? That's reason enough, in hindsight). Jeff Fisher narrowly escaped a similiar fate, on the legs of Vince Young's remarkeable breakout rookie career.

Most NLF players don't care about what is in the past, they look for one thing: Guaranteed Money. Why do you suppose anyone plays for the Cardinals? Surely not that perennial Super Bowl run. I can imagine the pained expression on Edgerrin James' face when he watched the Super Bowl, and his Colts go on to a ring without him...

Free Agency, at least the first week, is all about uncontrolled spending with nary a thought to cap hits.

I go to Mike Florio for insight, and find this, today...

"SOME TEAMS WILL CONTINUE TO WATCH, WAIT"

"Several teams with extra cap space are thought to be deliberately waiting for the market to slow down a bit before jumping into it.

"Every year, the biggest money flows in the first week or so of free agency. Then, things will calm down.

"And that's when some of these other teams will get in.

"It's a responsible approach, in our view. First, the teams get more bang for their bucks. Second, there's less of a concern that the guys already on the team will get their noses out of joint when a mid-level guy who was in the right place at the right time gets the keys to the vault."

OK, so we lose a couple of 'mid-level' (in the overall scheme of things) to FA, and build up later. Not a problem. Patience is usually rewarded, and our new General Manager, Mike Reinfield, isn't spending money like a drunken sailor. We'll have to look at his first couple contracts to see if he is of the Floyd Reese school of backloading contracts with an eye to successfully restructuring the thing before the player walks out the door. Let's hope so...

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Update on the PacMan karma thing
From today's Pravda...

"Mark Mistretta, a former New York City police officer who is also friends with Urbanski, is also frustrated there's been no information released about the case in the past two weeks. Like Petraski, he believes Jones is a friend of the shooter.

"It's like (police) are saying, 'We'll feed you a little crumb every once in awhile to keep you happy,' " Mistretta said. "Everything out here (in Las Vegas) is 'no comment.'

"Do they have some good information? I don't know. I hope so. Maybe if they say, 'We think we know who the shooter is,' maybe the shooter gets spooked and gets on the first plane to the middle of nowhere. Maybe they're keeping things quiet so the person won't run, I don't know. But things have been slow."

And, this rich quote from Manny Arora, one of Pac's lawyers:

"They have to figure out who it is first," Arora said. "There were a lot of people out there and I am sure at (5) o'clock in the morning you are going to have an interesting cast of characters. Who are you going to believe? Who are you not going to believe? I think people with records might have been out there.

"It is a very difficult job, trying to sort through all of it … and you just don't go out arresting people hoping you get the right one."

"Interesting cast of characters". Well, your client Pac is there, and started this whole little drama, so give him the lead role.

"I think people with records might have been out there." Well, Mr. Overpaid Ambulance Chaser, your insight is brilliant. Your client probably has one of the longest records on the street, nice of you to bring it to our attention, again.

And this: ""When it comes out and (if it) turns out that (Jones) is not involved, I think all the people that are naysayers at this point are going to owe Adam a huge apology. My opinion is really irrelevant because I think only the officer's opinion matters." Again, if Pacman hadn't 'made it rain' at the Minxx Gentleman's Club in the the first place, Tom Urbanski would not be paralyzed and still in the hospital.

As I said before, even if Pac somehow miracles his way out of this one, I won't be able to ever watch him on a field of play without thinking of what he caused to happen to Tom Urbanski.

A stupid, stupid move on Pac's part, and nigh on unforgiveable. And a nice, fat albatross hanging around the neck of the entire team...and, by extension, the State of Tennessee, and the League. Nice way to make it rain...
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