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I will say it once, I will say it again, these draft prospect visits don’t mean anything. When the Jets picked James Farrior, they had never met with him.
Perhaps it’s fun to talk about Temple DE Muhammed Wilkerson visiting the Jets, but it really doesn’t mean they are going to jump on him if he’s there at 30.
Don’t read too much into them.
These are information gathering visits, a chance to pick a players brains, that could help the team in the future, if they face the player as an opponent or perhaps if the players is on waivers.
I’m not saying they won’t pick any of the players who visit, but it’s not the main reason for the visit. Teams would never make interest in players that obvious . . .
Two weeks ago, the NFL instituted furloughs for their 400 employees because of the lockout . . .
One NFL source told me about the labor situation, “The NFL expects legal ping pong for the entire month for April, and for negotiations to really pick up in May.”
So when is this mess going to end?
“The owners are very strategic here,” said the source. “They know their drop dead point is with time – when sponsorships and everything that can be lost. They want to hold players feet to fire and reach a breaking point.” . . .
With the off-season mess, and uncertain future of the league, PFW draft guru Nolan Nawrocki thinks there will be a lot of trades during the draft.
“Speaking with one general manager last night, he’s looking at trade scenarios simply because there’s a belief that this year could be wasted in terms of the development,” Nawrocki said. “If you’re not able to spend time with players in the summer, in OTAs, get them into your program and get them working, it’s going to be Year Two when you see that learning curve, if not Year Three. I think the end result is that you could see more teams that want to move back, trade down and acquire picks for future years — pile up second- and third-round picks, if they could, and find guys that would be able to make a more immediate contribution next year when everything’s resolved.” . . .
One other thing on the labor mess and the draft.
It’s going to be strange scene after the draft during the lockout.
There will be a 48 hour window for teams to be in contact with the players they draft, but they have be careful what they do with the players.
They can visit the complex of each team, tour the facilities, do some media interviews, take some pictures, but they can’t do anything related to football – watching film, looking at a playbook and so on.”
Then after that 48 hour window, the team and player can’t have any contact, due to the lockout.
Bizarre . . .
Tara Sullivan of the Bergen Record reportedly was stopped from going in the locker room at the Masters by a security guard.
Sullivan and other female reporters are livid, and making a major issue out of this.
I wasn’t there, so I don’t know what happened. The Master officials are saying it was a misunderstanding.
Perhaps that is the case.
But remember, Sullivan was at the center of the Ines Sainz mess.
She wrote a number of columns about it, and like a number of woman reporters, distanced themselves from Sainz when she said they blew it out of proportion.
Perhaps Sullivan was a victim of unfair treatment in Augusta, but in the case of Sainz, Sullivan and several of her female collegues made a mountain out of mole hill, maybe for political gain.
And whever I ask people why women are allowed in men’s pro sports locker rooms, but men can’t go in women’s locker rooms, nobody has an answer.
Look-it, I’m not looking to go into women’s locker rooms, but it’s a double standard nobody can explain.