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I have never liked players who put themselves above the team. Players who hold out because they don't like where they play for or who their coach is or their contract or for any other reason. Steve Francis whining on draft day until he was traded from Vancouver to Houston. John Elway threatening to play baseball if the Colts drafted him. Bo Jackson actually PLAYING baseball instead of playing for the Bucaneers. And the last two aren't as bad as the fist one. One that REALLY gets me is Terrell Owens last year trying to renegotiate ONE YEAR after signing a contract. There is no excuse, if you agree to a contract for ANYTHING, you need to honor it. If you contract a company to put a new roof on your house, and one third of the way through the job they decide that they are not going to finish unless you re-negotiate a new price for them, you would call the Better Business Bureau and possibly that local news station that does the "We're on your side fighting fraud in YOUR community" pieces. It isn't done in "real life", so why is it okay in the world of sports? I am no apologist for owners, they have spent 100 years making money off of the labor of those in the spotlight. But how does that make them any different from Bill Gates or he guy who owns stock in Exxon/Mobil? That is business. And yes I know that, at least in football where there are no guaranteed contracts, holding out is the only way a player can make himself heard. And no, an NFL player can't just go looking for another job like I could if I was unhappy with my current employer. But here is the thing, they knew that before they signed the contract. They knew that from the time they were big time high school players being recruited by big time colleges. There are no secrets to this, no mysteries. Professional sports is a business, and if you don't like the business model pick a different profession or shut up and go with the system that is in place. That is why you have a union and collective bargaining. If enough of you want the system to change than make it a point in the next CBA. If the union decides to strike over what is considered by them to be unfair labor conditions, they have every legal right to do so and I would support their decision even if I didn't agree with their position. I would even sacrifice being able to watch the games. However, negotiations are never about things that noble. They are about money, and how each side can get the biggest piece. That is the way it is. And this is what brings me to Ashley Lelie.
A little background on Lelie. He was drafted out of Hawaii by the Denver Broncos in the 1st Round of the 2002 Draft, 19th pick overall. And (this is important) he signed a contract to play for the Denver Broncos. He decided this offseason that he should be classified as (and paid like) a #1 receiver instead of the 3rd receiver he was. And if you look at his stats (courtesy of espn.go )...
Stat Overview Receiving Rushing Fumbles
SPLIT REC YDS AVG LNG TD ATT YDS AVG LNG TD FUM LST
2005 42 770 18.3 56 1 5 84 16.8 39 0 0 0
Career 168 3007 17.9 60 12 20 172 8.6 39 0 0 0
Postseason - 2005 7 118 16.9 38 1 0 0 0.0 0 0 0 0
You can see that he does not deserve either the desination nor the compensation that would be paid to a #1 receiver. But he (and more likely his agent) was convinced that he should get those things, so he held out. And last week he was traded from the Broncos to the Atlanta Falcons. Where he will be...(wait for it)...the 3rd receiver. So what did the holdout get him? A chance to play the same position with a worse quarterback that he had (I would take Jake Plummer or Jay Cutler over Michael Vick ANYDAY, and I challenge anyone who reads this to prove to me that it would be a mistake. Fact: Kyle Boller has a better 2005 and a better career completion percentage than Michael Vick. In fact, with a couple of exceptions the stats are AMAZINGLY similar. So when Is Kyle going to get the cover of Madden?) and a lesser chance of making the playoffs and making a Super Bowl run. Brilliant move.
Oh yeah, there is one other thing the holdout got him. Debt. According to his contract, Lelie was due to make $700,000 this year. $100,000 was for participating in offseason workouts, and $600,000 would have been his base salary. Well toss the $100,000 out the window because he skipped the offseason workouts, and since he was such a shining example of how teams build chemistry and sacrifice the one for the many, he was fined about $11,000 for skipping the Bronco's minicamp in July and $14,000 per day for training camp. Grand total, over $375,000. But wait, there's more. The Broncos are ALSO going after part of his original signing bonus, which he agreed to allow them to do as part of them trading him (another brilliant career move on his part). Overall it is possible that he will have to pay the Broncos to play this year. He will OWE THE LEAGUE MONEY! And let's see what kind of contract he gets when this one ends. It just goes to show Karma is a bitch. So is my ex-girlfriend, but we don't need to go there.
I went to see my father Friday at the hospital in Buffalo. It's a long story about how he got there, and I won't bore you with it. Let it suffice to say that even though he was born in 1935, he's 100 years old now. Two months in prison have aged him that much. He has tremendous pain in his foot (where he has no circulation) and his foot feels like an ice cube. They were supposed to do an angioplasty on him, but haven't yet for some reason. They did a doppler and a stress test and he'll know something hopefully today. My father won't survive his incarceration -- I'm sure of that now.
His half-brother, Jerry, is still missing, too. He's been MIA for 3 weeks now and, even though the state police have conducted massive searches in the woods surrounding Jerry's house and found nothing, we all still believe that eventually he'll turn up dead in those very woods.
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Linda, my younger daughter (middle child) called this morning to let me know that she's at the hospital, dilated to 3 cm and almost completely effaced (sp?). Looks like we'll have us a baby today. They're planning to name him Ethan Michael. Ethan is the second son born to Linda and Brandon -- his older brother Brandon Jr. was born in February of 2003 and is excited about having a baby brother so he can "...teach him to pee standing up!"
I guess I'd better get the ends woven in on that blanket and get it sent off tomorrow!
I'm tickled to death that she called -- our relationship tends to be turbulent, at best. But I think in the end, she wants her Mom. I think we all tend to. Let's keep our fingers crossed that he's healthy and there's no complications in the delivery process.
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Things are really falling into place with our new business. We got our federal EIN on Friday and expect notification within the next day or two for our state sales tax ID. After that, we need to get a merchant account with a local bank (so we can accept credit cards) and we'll be open for business. We already have a job lined up which will be an excellent start to Lisa's handiwork portion of the business. Our online store is almost ready to open -- just need to finish "loading in" the products and get that merchant account. We're very excited about this and I truly believe that, because our products will, for the most part, be unique and out-of-the-ordinary, we should have some success with this online store.
Of course, we still have to apply for our "conditional use" permit for the town (so that we can use a room in the house as a home office), and that will go before the zoning board in mid-September.
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It's that time of year again, and I've started my Christmas shopping. I got some really cute little read-along books for little Brandon, who will be 4 in February. They contain CD/DVD material so that it can be played on a DVD player, CD player or a PC and he can read along with the stories. They're actually useful stories for small children -- they teach them about themselves and emotions and consequences.
Vanessa, who will be TWELVE in February will be difficult to figure out. Last year I gave her a $50 bill that was trapped inside a puzzle cube. Everyone (including her 6 year old sister) could solve the puzzle, but Vanessa didn't want to put the effort into solving it. But, after everyone told her that they wanted some of the money if they solved it and gave it to her, she decided she was on her own and spent almost two months trying to get that $50 out of that puzzle. That was the most she'd played with anything I've bought her to date. Anyway, I hate to always give kids money but she's a "tween" now and just really hard to figure out as far as what she likes and doesn't like.
Annie, who will be eight in March, is a bit easier. She's still a little girl, still loves "yadybugs" and still loves her unicorns and fairies. I'm looking for stuff for her room along these lines. I've already gotten her some stuff from Old Navy.
Cher, who will be six in March, isn't too hard to get stuff for, either. She loves frogs -- anything frogs, like her mother.
Michelle, my oldest daughter, is pretty easy, too. I got her a sweatshirt (like Lisa's apron) that says "Step away from my tools," and a nice warm up jacket from the college I work at. I'm also going to get her the mini-saw attachment for her Dremel tool, along with some other smaller things.
I ordered the new version of Madden NFL Football for Joe, an annual tradition. I also got the complete series of Into the West for Lisa, along with an order for season 3 of The L Word. I got her a router table for her birthday (which is September 2) and will begin to look for things that I think would be useful for her as she does her handiwork for the company. Having wholesale purchase authority, I'm pretty sure I can get her some good stuff through the company, and write it off as business operating expenses. Best of all worlds.
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Only 18 more days until the NFL season starts. And it will open with a special edition of Monday Night Football on Thursday, September 7th -- featuring the Indianapolis Colts against the New York Giants. Peyton Manning against his brother, Eli. This should be a good game.
I decided that I'm no longer going to be a team fan, but instead will be a player fan. And I just love Peyton, have since he first entered the NFL. There's a lot of characteristics reminiscent of John Elway in that guy and I think that's why I like him. It's hard to NOT want to see him succeed, and hopefully this will be his year.
Of course, I'll remain somewhat of a Broncos fan, but it really hasn't been the same since John Elway retired. Along with his retirement, the loss of Ed McCaffrey, Trevor Pryce, Shannon Sharpe and now the offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak, the team just doesn't have the same spark. Their 10,000 points of light have dwindled to half that number, if you ask me.
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A news article about our case against my employer came out Friday -- nothing like being behind the times. The ruling came out about 3 or 4 weeks ago now. Slow news is good news?
Denver Broncos Schedule
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