Latest News Updates

NFL roundup: Players union files suit, accuses owners of collusion (The SportsXchange)

The NFL Players Association filed a lawsuit on Wednesday that accused NFL owners and the league of collusion during the 2010 NFL season.

 

Marshall looking for more this time with Cutler (The Associated Press)

LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) Brandon Marshall cringes when he looks at the old clips.

 

Bears agree to 1-year deal with DT Collins (The Associated Press)

LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) The Chicago Bears have agreed to a one-year contract with defensive tackle Nate Collins.

 

Jags' Kampman could be out until training camp (National Football Post)

Cornerback Mathis appears to be ahead of schedule.

 

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sign Local Wide Receiver from Arena Football League: Fan Take (Yahoo! Contributor Network)

Much of the news surrounding the Tampa Bay Buccaneers lately has involved the trade of Kellen Winslow, Jr. and the signing of Dallas Clark, but on May 22, the Bucs signed a wide receiver and Tampa native, Greg Ellingson, from the Arena Football League.

 

Jaguars CB Mathis nearing return from knee injury (The Associated Press)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback Rashean Mathis is seemingly way ahead of schedule.

 

Andre Johnson has arthroscopic surgery (National Football Post)

Texans receiver to miss time in OTAs.

 

Tanier’s Team Reviews: The Kansas City Chiefs, via Todd Haley (Shutdown Corner)

Any website can post "offseason grades" for NFL teams, mixing the draft and free agency into transaction soup, then straining it through the mind of some sportswriter who doesn't know who half the players are. Only the Shutdown Corner has the resources to get actual players, coaches, and executives from each team to evaluate their own offseasons! That's right: over the next few weeks, you will get transaction evaluations straight from the horse's mouths: straight talk about who was signed, who was lost, who was drafted, and why. (For the satirically challenged: all player, coach, and executive remarks are made by an impersonator). In this segment, former Chiefs coach Todd Haley breaks down the offseason moves of the team that fired him at the end of last season. We have a bad feeling about this. TODD HALEY: Wash your windshield, mister? I don't scrub windshields for the money. I have a coaching job now as offensive coordinator for the Steelers. I carry this slop bucket because I like it. It's comforting to wash windows while the mad clown stares at me with his dead, gray eyes, whispering razor truths mortals dare not speak aloud, truths that pierce flesh and cut an inky scarlet line against the throat of the he-goat … Sorry, my thoughts meander sometimes. The Chiefs had a productive offseason. At the skill positions, they added Peyton Hillis to a running back committee that already includes Dexter McCluster and Jamaal Charles, who is ahead of schedule rehabbing his knee injury. Kevin Boss joins Tony Moeaki, also on schedule to return from a knee injury, to give the Chiefs two tight ends who can block and catch. Two rookie wide receivers, Devon Wylie and Junior Hemingway, will provide extra depth behind Dwayne Bowe, Steve Breaston and last year's top pick Jonathan Baldwin, who started to come on late in the season. Matt Cassel, yet another player who missed much of last season with injuries, won't have to worry about throwing to the likes of Keary Colbert or Anthony Becht. That's right, everyone gets to come back to Kansas City but me, the guy who got blamed for not being able to build an offense around Tyler Palko and Terrance Copper, while the dead-eyed clown stares back at me from the mirror and cackles. "You ever played cornhole with the devil, son?" he asks, his raspy voice a rusty hypodermic needle scraping gutter concrete. "He don't use no beanbags, boy." And that he-goat just brays and brays like he sees the end coming and don't know whether to fight it or welcome it. Moving on to the defense, Dontari Poe was one of the most physically gifted specimens in this year's draft class. The Chiefs have a bad habit of striking out with big defensive tackles, from Ryan Sims to Glenn Dorsey, so my former assistant Romeo Crennel will have to be careful about Poe's development and role if he doesn't want Poe to become an overpriced space-eater the greasepaint smears and the sharpened steel glints in the pickup truck headlights behind the barnyard. The loss of Brandon Carr is going to hurt at cornerback, because Stanford Routt is an adequate No. 2 corner behind Brandon Flowers. But the defense will be better if it is not  on the field as often, and when the muffled brays fade to pitch-black silence, vengeful darkness sated all-too-briefly by the still-quivering sacrifice .

 

Pasquarelli: Pittsburgh completes overdue overhaul of O-line (The SportsXchange)

With quarterback Ben Roethlisberger now 30, and the team's most valuable player sacked an average of 43.5 times over the last six seasons -- including 40 or more sacks in all but one of those campaigns, and coming off an ankle injury last year -- Pittsburgh has drastically retooled its blocking unit.

 

Around the League: USFL to become NFL minor leagues? (The SportsXchange)

Some of the discussion at Tuesday's league meeting is expected to focus on the resurrected USFL, which is being reconstituted as a "feeder" or minor league, and on how involved the NFL should be with it. Former NFL executive Jim Steeg, who once presided over Super Bowl preparations, is chairman of the USFL's board of advisors, and that could give it some entre with the NFL.