Dave’s Football Blog

Santonio Holmes hasn’t even played a game yet, and he’s already looking like the Steelers’ worst 1st-round pick in about five years. At least, that’s what Post-Gazette columnist Ron Cook thinks…

We know Holmes was a special player at Ohio State. That’s why the Steelers made him their No. 1 draft choice in April and signed him to a five-year, $8.11 million contract Friday, including a $5.42 million bonus. It’s also why he could comfortably wear a red Buckeye Football T-shirt around the St. Vincent College campus yesterday with “Da Man” on the back.

But we don’t know Holmes as a person. All we know is he was arrested on Memorial Day weekend in Miami on a disorderly conduct charge and again June 18 in Columbus, Ohio, on a domestic-abuse charge.

That’s why it would have been nice if Holmes had pulled a Floyd Landis yesterday and asked us to wait to judge him until all the facts of his incidents are out. Remember, he hasn’t been convicted of anything yet. It also would have been nice if he had said something like, maybe, “This isn’t the way I wanted to start my career in Pittsburgh, but if you give me a chance, I’ll prove to you the type of character I have.”

But Holmes didn’t do that.

He didn’t even come close.

“I haven’t gotten any negative feedback from one person since I’ve been in town the past month-and-a-half,” Holmes said, leaving the impression he thinks it’s perfectly normal for a guy to get arrested twice.

(Thanks, Jonathan!)

So one Philadelphia Eagles receiver, Reggie Brown, suffered a hamstring injury over the weekend, while another Eagles receiver, Jabar Gaffney, was arrested and charged with unlawful possession of a handgun in New Jersey on Friday.

Um, yeah. Where’s Donovan McNabb throwing the football again?

I would like someone to tell me what Yahoo Sports columnist Jason Cole has against Reggie Bush.

About a week ago, Cole put forth the idea that Bush might re-enter the draft in 2007 rather than sign with the New Orleans Saints. The story grew legs, got ESPN tongues wagging, and made at least one blogger just a little nonplussed.

Then on Friday, Cole enhanced the Reggie Bush drama even further…

A source with knowledge of the negotiations said earlier this week that it would take a “dramatic” change to get Bush signed soon. The No. 2 overall selection of the 2006 draft missed New Orleans’ first day of training camp on Friday after talk of a protracted holdout and a possible season-long holdout surfaced last week.

Never mind, of course, that Cole was the one who started that talk in the first place.

Of course, that talk can be squashed now, as Bush agreed to a six-year with the Saints last night — just days after Cole wrote that it would take something “dramatic” for this to happen.

Cole’s bio states the following…

Jason Cole is an award-winning writer who covered the Miami Dolphins for 15 years at The Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. A member of the Pro Football Writers Association, he also has experience covering the NBA. Jason graduated from Stanford with a degree in communication.

I don’t know what it is that these Stanford guys have against Southern Cal football players, aside from the typical “success breeds contempt” line — or maybe it’s because the Trojans made the Cardinal look like Duke football last season — but I do believe this series of Bush-won’t-sign columns ought to get Cole an invite to the Playa Haters Ball. Jason Cole, this YouTube copyright violation is just for you…

Santonio Holmes agreed to a five-year deal yesterday, and the entire organization has been quick to stand behind the kid and insist that he’s not trouble.

“Our opinion of him hasn’t changed,” Colbert said. “We still feel good about the kid, and he has done all the right things since the incidents. He set himself back with a couple of incidents. … Now, it’s up to him to take the next step. We’re comfortable he will take all of the necessary corrective steps on and off the field.”

Super Bowl MVP Hines Ward said he worked out with Holmes all week in Pittsburgh before camp and doesn’t believe the Steelers drafted a troubled player.

“I don’t make much out of it. It doesn’t bother me,” Ward said of Holmes’ two arrests. “He’s here now, and we can’t worry about what he did, only (about) his growth and maturity once he’s around all the veteran guys who know what it takes. He’s eager to learn and he’s always asking questions.”

Perhaps someone should ask him why he didn’t return Ben Roethlisberger’s calls during the offseason. Then again, maybe Holmes had an answer for that, too. Regardless, he’s in camp, and hopefully, he can be the kind of deep threat on the field that the Steelers need.

Yes, I know, NFL training camp is in full swing, and I shouldn’t be wasting this precious blog space on dirty indoor football news, but I just thought you should know about this, and besides, it’s got local implications here in NC…

Five teams from the American Indoor Football League announced today that they’re telling the fledgling league to piss off and forming their own league. The World Indoor Football League — which is appropriately named if you think “World” means “that area of land between West Virginia and Florida” — begins play in 2007 with the following teams (former league in parens):

Augusta Spartans (AIFL)
Charleston (S.C.) Sand Sharks (NIFL)
Daytona Beach Thunder (AIFL)
Huntington (W.V.) Heroes (AIFL)
Osceola Outlaws (NIFL)
Raleigh Rebels (AIFL)
Rome (Ga.) Renegades (AIFL)

Let’s get this out of the way now. WIFL? What marketing genius came up with that? Do you really want your football league’s acronym to remind people of cheesy plastic baseball-like toys? Look at the geography of the teams. Was “Southern Indoor Football League” such a terrible name? Isn’t that the point of this new league?

Anyway, the league itself will be operated as a collective of the owners, rather than by a single president. Harry Pierce, who co-owns both the Renegades and Rebels, was instrumental in forming the league in this fashion after dealing with two different league presidents — NIFL president Carolyn Shiver and AIFL president Andrew Haines — who proved to be about as good at running football leagues as Maurice Clarett is at staying out of trouble. Having a stake in two teams, though, makes Pierce the head honcho of this new league for now.

Conspicuously absent from this list, though, is the Richmond Bandits, the 2005 AIFL champion whose game tape feud with the Rebels earlier this year resulted in their exile from the league. Somehow, I don’t think Pierce’s group is interested in rebuilding that bridge, even though it would be good for building those regional rivalries that help minor leagues grow.

Pierce says more teams are expected to join the WIFL in the coming weeks. I suspect one of them will be the Fayetteville Guard, which is competing the NIFL championship tonight in that football hotbed of Billings, Montana. That team probably doesn’t want to announce it’s switching leagues before competing for a championship — especially after the team attempted to move that game to Fayetteville on a technicality and has openly talked about switching leagues. I’d also like to see the Greensboro Revolution join this league, though it seems that team’s owner isn’t such a nice guy. Having someone say they “would rather pass a kidney stone than ever deal with him again” isn’t what you would call a quality reference.

Still, Raleigh v. Fayetteville and Raleigh v. Greensboro are marketable matchups here in NC, and this new league desperately needs to flex a little marketing muscle if it wants to succeed next spring. Local media in Raleigh literally had no clue that the Rebels even existed this year. The WIFL needs to work something out with local sports bars and radio stations in these markets, or it’s going to be just as invisible as every other indoor football league that doesn’t have “Arena” in its name.

Here’s the WIFL’s temporary web site. I’ll keep an eye on this story, because once the NFL season is done, we have to have something to fill the void…

UPDATE (7/31): Dan Ryan wrote in to say that he was misquoted by Yes Weekly with regard to Greensboro Revolution owner Anthony Pewonski. The actual quote?

The fact that I would delight in Tony Pewonski passing a kidney stone the size of a grapefruit probably says as much about my flawed character than his business practices.

Certainly wouldn’t want to get that wrong. Dan also says that the WIFL considered calling itself the Continental States Football Union, or CSFU — which, of course, isn’t any sort of commentary on NIFL owner Carolyn Shiver. Not at all.

Now that he’s won his Super Bowl, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher remains coy about his future, telling that great Steel City stalwart Stan Savran that he’s “not going to look too far down the road.”

That’s because the road doesn’t end in Pittsburgh, and he doesn’t want to tell that to the yinzers who love him — not until they’re ready to accept the phrase, “Steelers head coach Ken Whisenhunt,” anyway. The likely endgame for Cowher in Pittsburgh is for him to retire from the NFL, return to Raleigh, and (probably) become the Athletic Director at NC State, his alma mater. The Wolfpack boosters hate current A.D. Lee Fowler almost as much as they hate Duke, especially after that disaster with John Calipari. The only reason Fowler is still there? Cowher is still honoring his contract in Pittsburgh. Cowher would probably be in Raleigh right now if he didn’t love the Rooneys so much. He’s going to help the team now by helping Whisenhunt make the transition to head coach. Why else would Whisenhunt stick around Pittsburgh after so many head coaching jobs opened up during the offseason?

I don’t need to remind anyone that Cowher bought a $2.5 million home in Raleigh. How many people not named Mark Cuban spend that much on a house and don’t live in it?

Look, we all know this is coming. It’s just going to take a year or two before we get there. For now, these are still Bill Cowher’s Pittsburgh Steelers, so let’s all just enjoy the ride while we still got the van, ‘kay?

(Spotted on digg. Check out my football diggs here.)

The Texans Chick sure thinks so, and the similarities she highlights are actually pretty spooky…

• Both were (Dom) Capers-run teams at their inception as a franchise.

• In 2000, the Panthers went 7-9, and then the following season went 1-15. In 2004, the Texans went 7-9, and then the following season went 2-14.

• After these dreadful, losing seasons, the Panthers hired John Fox, a promising coach who had been a NFL defensive coordinator since 1994, and the Texans hired Gary Kubiak, a promising coach who had been a NFL offensive coordinator since 1995. Fox was 46 when he was hired, and Kubiak was 44. Both coaches are reputed to have good people skills and a confident presence.

• In 2001, the Panthers picked a freakishly gifted ACC defensive end, Julius Peppers with their first pick, and a 6′1, 231 lb SEC linebacker, Will Witherspoon with the third pick. In 2006, the Texans picked a freakishly gifted ACC defensive end, Mario Williams with their first pick and a 6′1, 236 lb SEC linebacker DeMeco Ryans with their second pick.

It goes on from there, though to be fair, it was George Seifert who was responsible for that 1-15 season, not Capers. (Seifert’s name still induces grimacing and eye-rolling among some NFL fans in this state.) Either way, I think the Texans got the right guy as their head coach, and I suspect Dominick Davis, if he’s recovered from last season’s knee injury, can’t wait for this season to start…

The annual wailing and rending of garments begins anew in Cleveland…

LeCharles Bentley, the All-Pro center who signed with the Browns for $36 milllion and was to be the anchor of their newly-built offensive line, is out for the season after blowing out his knee in the team’s first 11-on-11 drill.

That loud whistling sound you heard was Reuben Droughns fantasy draft stock dropping like Fat Man from the Enola Gay. All that’s left for Browns fans to do is hope that this doesn’t go mushroom-shaped on them like some of their top draft picks have over the last few seasons. I still think this team has a shot at .500, but last week, I would have guaranteed at least that much, just because of what Bentley brings to the O-line. Without him? Yeah, not so much. The rest of the AFC North is probably grinning ear-to-ear right now.

Marty Hurney, this blog salutes you.

The Carolina Panthers’ last two unsigned draft picks, RB DeAngelo Williams and S Nate Salley, are no longer unsigned. Williams signed a 5-year, $7.6-million deal last night, while Salley signed late yesterday for an undisclosed sum. Says one writer:

With Hurney at the helm, the Panthers have typically gone down to the wire with signing their first-round picks, drawing plenty of media attention. But it normally ends up being much ado about nothing as a deal almost always works out by reporting day with both sides walking away happy.

The Panthers have never had a lengthy rookie holdout in the Hurney era.

That’s because Hurney knows what the hell he’s doing. He may not be the most charismatic personality in football, but if he keeps putting the pieces in place to help John Fox mold a winner, who cares?

Training camp is on, people. You ready?

Memo to all NFL quarterbacks with herpes:

Any photos you willingly take with hot groupies can and will be used against you in the court of the blogosphere. Don’t believe me? Click here and see for yourself…

I’m actually going to give ol’ Rotten Ronnie the benefit of the doubt on that blunt thing, but either way, that’s definitely a rather ugly outbreak. I hope the girl in that snapshot stayed as far away from his mouth as possible.