Thursday, July 14, 2005

The NHL is back in business

Well it looks like the NHL strike is finally over. Both sides still have to ratify the deal, but I am pretty sure that will happen. If one side decided not to ratify it, they would certainly face the wrath of the fans and be villified in the press. The NHL will now have a salary cap, no big surprise there since most of the other major sports have either a salary cap or a luxury tax to help hold salaries below a certain level (as a total that is).

I don't watch a ton of hockey during the season but watch some of the playoffs.

Read the story here:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news?slug=ap-nhllockout&prov=ap&type=lgns

Grady Jackson to hold out? Oh yeah, Drew is his agent!

Even though I am a Packer fan, and I think Grady Jackson certainly has helped their run defense up the middle, the notion that a guy who already has a decent contract and only had 23 tackles and one sack last year would hold it strikes me as pretty silly. Of course, Drew Rosenhaus is his agent, and I think practically all his clients hold out. Here is how it seems to work: His clients, especially draft picks, get paid to be All-Pro's. If they don't make it they seem to think that is fine, they don't need to give money back to their team. But if they do make it, then they deserve millions more on top of that, even if there current deal is still in effect. So in a sense you could say that the way Drew and others negotiate, that the players are getting paid millions to suck, and if they do anything more than suck they deserve many millions more.

Seems kind of silly doesn't it?

Nothing against Grady Jackson, but maybe he needs to stay healthy for a whole season and have a great season before he starts making demands. Oh wait, this is the NFL we are talking (actually any pro sports for that matter).

Monday, July 11, 2005

This is good, third rate actor wants more $$

I could not believe this when I read it, but apparently actor Chris Tucker is making lots of demands before he will agree to shoot Rush Hour 3, at least according to fellow actor Jackie Chan. I think Tucker is decent in the Rush Hour movies, but they would be worthless without Jackie Chan, he makes them funny. For someone who, to the best of my knowledge only has a couple of decent movies under his belt, to make these kind of demands is ridiculous. To compare it to sports, it would be like a hitter with an average of .201 holding out for a lot more money. Shouldn't you be somewhat successful before you start making those kinds of demands?

I am not even considering Tucker getting pulled over and I think arrested for driving over 100 mph in Georgia recently.

You can read the story on Yahoo from AP here about Tucker and Rush Hour 3:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8545779/

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Ever notice this

I never really paid that much attention to this until this year, but I could not help but notice that several NBA draft picks, just drafted like a week or so ago, have already agreed to contracts with their respective teams. Meanwhile in the NFL, no first rounders have signed, not sure any second rounders have either, and their draft was almost 3 months ago. Does that make sense?

I think the real reason for that is agents in the NFL seem to only be concerned about their cut so they have the player hold out long and hard for more money. Even if the holdout may cost the player more money long term, as holdouts often do, the agent does not seem to really be truly concerned about their clients well being.

What do you think of the situation? These days a first round pick in the NFL holding out is so common that you hardly even notice anymore unless the pick belongs to one of your favorite teams.