Kerry Rhodes Channels Latrell Sprewell

I don't think any real sports fan has ever forgotten Latrell Sprewell's quote in 2004 when he turned down a 3 year $21 million dollar contract extension from the Minnesota Timberwolves:

"I have a family to feed"

Yeah, $21 million, who could possibly eat off that?

Well we now have a new contender for Sprewell's throne for most financially out of touch pro player.

The guy's name is Kerry Rhodes and he fancies himself a model and an actor while his day job is formerly starting safety for the New York Jets.

I say formerly because he has just been demoted by first year head coach Rex Ryan. The same Rex Ryan who had been the defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens. The same Rex Ryan who had favorably compared Rhodes to his all world safety in Baltimore, Ed Reed, prior to the season starting.

Having watched Rhodes play all year I was only surprised that it took this long to bench him. The guy had become a liability on defense and he didn't look very brave on some of his tackling opportunities.

Now I am not saying that his modeling or acting had anything to do with his fall off in play, but I will say this. I never was a fan of guys doing too much during the season. There is plenty of time in the off season to pursue other interests, ball to you fall, go back to school, whatever a guy might want to do. But when the season is going on I liked to know that guys were singularly focused on winning games. And I just don't know how you can give that kind of commitment if every Tuesday you are chasing other dreams.

But I digress.

This article on Rhodes' benching is pretty much predictable right until you get to his quote at the end justifying his modeling and acting pursuits.

"If I can't have a living and do what I want to do besides football, maybe they should pay my bills," said Rhodes, who will make close to $10 million this season. "I have to think of my career outside football. Football is not forever."

Yeah Kerry Rhodes, with unemployment over 10% in this country and people losing their homes everyday, I am sure all of those Jets fans are gonna be REALLY sympathetic to you needing more than the almost $10 million dollars you are making in this year alone so you can "pay your bills".

To call that a dumbass statement would be an insult to dumbass statements.

If that really is Kerry Rhodes' mentality then some how I doubt he will ever be the player that some folks thought he might become. He certainly has taken several steps back this season.

But who knows, maybe he will be the next Denzel.

And perhaps then he will never again have to worry about covering that pesky light bill.

It is what it is.

On Joey Porter

Last week when Joey Porter was deactivated because of a coaches decision plenty of sports "experts" started writing the obituary for his career. You see he just hadn't been producing of late and surely the Dolphins sitting him down was the beginning of the end for him. Even though at first at least, there were no indications that the benching was because of his play, you saw "expert" after "expert" proclaiming that the Dolphins were about to move on and let the guys behind him on the depth chart take over. After they played the Bucs and his backup Charlie Anderson had a good game as a starter, many of these same "experts" openly speculated that Porter wouldn't even play, let alone start, last night's game against the Carolina Panthers.

Boy were they wrong.

Not only did he play, not only did he start, Joey Porter DOMINATED the game last night on defense with 8 tackles and 2 sacks. That's not even taking into account the other times he hurried Jake Delhomme.

Yeah you could say that the absence of Jordan Gross at left tackle had something to do with it. However not all of the plays Porter made happened when Gross' backup was blocking him.

Here is what I said in a comment on ProFootballTalk when the story about him getting benched last week first surfaced.

I have an alternate theory. The Dolphins took a look at the Bucs and decided the game would probably be well in hand and the looked at Porter and decided that he wasn't going to get back to dominating as a pass rusher until his hamstring really had a chance to heal up. So they give him the week off and get him ready for the rest of the season which they will need to win a lot of their remaining games to get in.

Now if Wake or Roth tear it up then yeah he might get Wally Pipped. But I would bet he is back starting next week.

Now it turns out that Porter was likely punished for not going home after being excused from practice but it doesn't change the fact that being benched for a game was physically beneficial to him.

A lot of people don't understand this but playing in an NFL game takes way more out of you than any practice or practices the week prior. You are never going to feel "good" as a player after the season starts but its worse when you have an injury and keep trying to come back and play in the games. Porter had been battling knee and hamstring injuries most of the season and it really showed when you watched the games. I had a similar experience to this and just wanted to share.

In 1999 I won the starting job at right end for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Unfortunately a few games into the season I sustained a pretty bad high ankle sprain against the Denver Broncos (and it could have been a lot worse). Rather than rest the injury I opted to keep playing game after game after game. My production however fell way off and by the end of the year I wasn't making many plays.

It was at that point, right before we went on the west coast to play the Oakland Raiders, that our coaches and training staff decided I should sit out a game and try to get it better. Now at the time I wasn't really feeling that decision because we were on a push for the playoffs and I had former first rounder Marcus Jones breathing down my neck for playing time and perhaps even my starting position. But the eye in the sky don't lie and I wasn't really an asset to my team at that point so I agreed with the decision and sat the game out.

The game itself was a disaster and we got the brakes beat off us. Things weren't looking so hot but we were heading into our final game against the Chicago Bears in Chicago with the NFC Central division crown on the line. To make a long story short I ended up having a great game with a sack and a fumble recovery and we won the game going away.

My play continued at a high level in the playoffs with two sacks and a caused fumble against the Redskins and an interception on the first play of the game against the Rams in the NFC championship game.

Now I don't say all this to promote myself, I say it to show just how much even one week off can make a difference during an NFL season. The Joey Porter we saw last night is the guy we have become accustomed to seeing for most of his career. And I have every reason to believe that now that he is feeling better physically, that he will continue to make plays for the rest of the year.

In the end his punishment for going home may ultimately benefit not only him but his team. If he ends up balling for the rest of the season and the Dolphins get into the playoffs, credit should be given for this move no matter what the motivation. The Dolphins will have their dominant pass rusher back and in the end that's all that really matters to most of their fans.

And this is yet another reason why you should always take what NFL "experts" who have never played the game say with a grain of salt.

It is what it is.

Grievance

Turns out twitter has claimed its first victim.

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — David Clowney might think twice before tweeting from now on.

The New York Jets' speedy wide receiver was benched by an angry coach Rex Ryan for the team's game against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday after Clowney complained on Twitter about a lack of playing time.

"I was upset with him, yep," Ryan said Monday. "For a couple of reasons. One of them is you'll hear things if a guy's unhappy or whatever. I'm not a big Twitter guy, but you hear different things. To me, this is about our team and understanding this is about our team. No individual is bigger than the team."

A few hours after the Jets beat New England 16-9 last Sunday, Clowney tweeted: "1 play in the 1st Half, 4 plays in the 2nd half ... A bit disappointed about my playing time but very happy and satisfied about the win."

Clowney added in a subsequent tweet that, "My team always comes first so I'ma just keep grinding."

Honestly I don't see anything wrong with what the guy tweeted. If I have a guy on my team who is happy riding the bench then we are going to have a problem. In both tweets he said regardless of his dissappointment he was happy with the win though. In fact I think his answer was about pitch perfect when it comes down to it. He didn't blame anyone for his playing time. He didn't say the coaches don't like him or he "deserved" more playing time. He just said he would have liked to have played more. I will bet you dollars to donuts that Coach Ryan didn't even read what the kid tweeted and just assumed he came with some TO mess. This was overkill if you ask me and what you are going to end up seeing is that sooner or later if this continues the NFLPA will have to step in and file a grievance. There is no team policy that you can't twitter and if there isn't guys have a right to free speech. Benching a guy hurts his reputation and his ability to make plays which is how NFL players get paid in their next contract.

I can't remember a time that a guy was benched because of such innocuous comments in any interview on TV or in print so its obvious that this is largely just a shot at those players using twitter in general. If the NFL wants to ban twittering altogether then they should do that, or at least attempt to. But bullying a guy trying to make an example is a buncha bullshit if you ask me.

Breaking News: Josh Johnson New Starter For The Bucs

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have announced that they are benching Byron Leftwich in favor of second year player, Josh Johnson. I will have a LOT more to say about this in a bit...