Dave’s Football Blog

So Mike Tice isn’t allowed to make any extra cash off the Super Bowl tickets in his hand, but if an NFL franchise wants to sell Super Bowl tickets to a fan, it’s perfectly okay to force that fan to commit to a 15-year, $120,000 season ticket contract.

I do like my pro football, but damn if it ain’t run by some two-faced jackasses.

From those bastards at AP:

Investigators probing an alternative medicine doctor want to speak to at least nine current or former members of the Carolina Panthers about possible illegal steroid prescriptions, a Columbia newspaper reported.

“We’ve known about the investigation into Dr. Shortt for a short period of time and we are still trying to retrieve enough information to comment on it,” Carolina general manager Marty Hurney said Sunday. “We certainly are not aware of any of our players testing positive for steroids.”

Except for Julius Peppers in 2003, of course. This is not good…

Yes, yes, I know about Jeff Reed, Doug Flutie, Mike Tice, Crybaby Romanowski and stupid ol’ Rae Rae.

It’s ACC Tournament weekend here. Cut me a little slack…

Thank you for coming to New York, Mr. Burress, but as it turns out, we’ve decided that we really don’t want to put up with your crap. Enjoy your plane trip to Minnesota…

Brett Favre loves his wife. So when Brett Favre’s wife tells him that he should play one more season for the Green Bay Packers, then dammit, he’s going to play one more season with the Green Bay Packers.

Of course, it helps that Brett Favre’s wife is recovering from breast cancer. He’s had too many people die on him already…

From the tone of the reportage, you would think John Fox just sold Bill Gates an iPod or something. Regardless, the Carolina Panthers head coach has convinced veteran wideout Ricky Proehl to return to the Panthers for one more season. Proehl was ready to retire, but it looks like he’ll do that after next season instead.

Now we’re just waiting on Brett Favre to make up his mind, I guess…

Linebacker Kendrell Bell joins the list of former Steelers this offseason by signing a seven-year deal with the Kansas City Chiefs.

As good a linebacker as Bell is, I really don’t think the Steelers will miss him all that much much, especially after Bell fell behind Larry Foote on the depth chart because of injuries. The Steelers’ front seven on defense proved exceptionally tough last year, and they should come into next season mostly intact. If anything, it’s a gamble by the Chiefs that Bell will overcome his injuries and be the pass-rusher he used to be. After all, when was the last time the Chiefs had a pass rush?

Pete Prisco of CBS Sportsline seems to think that Kurt Warner makes the Arizona Cardinals a threat.

Up until last week, though, running back Larry Lee Ned made the Cardinals a threat to steal your laptop.

It’s looking more and more like Plaxico Burress won’t be returning to Pittsburgh. The Steelers signed wide receiver Cedrick Wilson away from the 49ers for a considerably less than Burress will get somewhere else. Wilson had career highs in receptions and receiving yardage last season despite breaking his left leg late in the season.

Wilson is also 5′10″. The Steelers receiving corps may be nicknamed “The Runts” next season…

As for Burress, he appears to be leaning toward the New York Giants. The Vikings showed some interest, but with tales of mismanagement emerging from Minnesota and most of their free agent cash going to much needed defensive players — they signed cornerback Fred Smoot today — Plax may decide New York might be a lot more fun. Especially during the winter. Minnesota’s a little frigid.

Lots of people seem to think the Carolina Panthers are killing it in the free agent market. Says Don Banks:

In guard Mike Wahle and cornerback Ken Lucas, the Panthers have added two young players who weren’t just among the best players available at their position in free agency, they’re among the best period. The versatile Wahle helps solidify a Panthers offensive line that had a revolving-door quality to it last season, and Lucas has developed into one of the league’s most complete cornerbacks. Given the choice between Lucas or Washington’s more highly regarded Fred Smoot, I’d have taken Lucas and not looked back.

The offensive line upgrade was clearly necessary. Hopefully, it will do just as much to improve Carolina’s running game as a healthy DeShaun Foster or Stephen Davis. Personally, I think Foster will win the starting job for next season, but I’m not ready to dismiss Davis after Jerome Bettis made me look foolish for declaring him done. Plus, if Foster gets hurt again next season, his fragility may force the Panthers to make a move at running back.

Or they could just give the ball to Nick Goings again. That seemed to work pretty well late last season…