Moss accepts Jerry Jones' apology for draft snub

Randy Moss has forgiven the Dallas Cowboys for not drafting him 13 years ago.

"I don't hold a grudge," Moss said. "I'm not bitter about the situation."

However, Moss still plans to punish the Cowboys like he does no other team when he faces them Sunday in what also happens to be his first home game since rejoining the Minnesota Vikings.

"I always forgive, man, that's in the Bible," Moss said Wednesday on a conference call with Dallas-area reporters. "I always forgive, but I never forget."

Moss has taken out his anger on the Cowboys the way an athlete should - on the field. He's 7-0 against Dallas, having scored 11 touchdowns. He's averaged 21 yards per catch, his most against any team.

The payback started on Thanksgiving of his rookie season, when Moss caught three passes - for 51, 56 and 56 yards, all going for touchdowns. He also drew a pass interference penalty for another 50 yards.

The bitterness started seven months earlier, when the Cowboys had the No. 8 pick and a dire need for a receiver. Moss was sure they were going to take him because of the special treatment he received during a pre-draft visit.

"I didn't do the normal things that the rest of the guys did," Moss said. "Jerry Jones told me I was going to skip what the plans were for that night and I was going to have a town car take me over to Deion Sanders' house because he wanted to talk to me. So I thought that was just a way of them telling me, 'We really want you, we're thinking about drafting you.' ... The love that I received and the conversations that I had for those 48 hours had me believing that I was going to be a Dallas Cowboy up until draft day."

Dallas was trying to clean up its image following Michael Irvin's legal troubles. Moss had undeniable talent, but there were enough questions about his character to persuade Jones to spend his top pick on defensive end Greg Ellis, a solid player and a solid citizen.

Moss fell to Minnesota at the 21st pick, so Dallas wasn't the only team that snubbed him. Yet he singles out the Cowboys because of how they teased him - and, in turn, his mother.

"I told my mom I might be a Cowboy, so she had her mind set on Dallas," he said. "I was kind of more depressed because she was more depressed. ... Just seeing her facial expression and how she looked, I really took that to heart, man, and I told myself any time I play the Dallas Cowboys I'm never going to forget that look."

When Moss was traded from New England to Minnesota last week, Jones was asked about having picked Ellis instead and how Moss has repeatedly punished the Cowboys owner for it.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com

Cassel, Schaub took the same road to becoming NFL starters

The Chiefs have yet to give any hints that they are dissatisfied with their starting quarterback, Matt Cassel. But if in private moments they’re looking for encouragement that trading for a young, largely untested quarterback can indeed pay dividends, they need to look no further than the opposition in Sunday’s game against the Texans in Houston.

Houston’s Matt Schaub, like Cassel, was once traded from another team where he had no apparent future other than as a backup. Schaub has succeeded to the point that the Texans view him as a franchise quarterback.

“In this league, you’ve got to feel good about that position and you’ve got to have one, or it’s tough to be successful,” Houston coach Gary Kubiak said. “Sometimes you have to make some moves to go get you one, and sometimes you have to take a risk to get one and he may not have played much football. It’s a matter of you doing your homework and believing in what you’re getting, and sometimes they work out and sometimes they don’t.”

So far, at least, Schaub has worked out better for the Texans than Cassel for the Chiefs. Schaub was acquired by Houston in a 2007 trade with Atlanta, which at the time entrusted its future at quarterback to Michael Vick.

Schaub was the AFC’s starting quarterback in the Pro Bowl last season, when he led the NFL in passing yardage.

Cassel had one solid season as the starter in 2008 with New England, where he replaced the injured Tom Brady. He’s still trying to establish himself since coming to the Chiefs in last year’s trade.

Cassel this season has had a few shining moments, the most notable being his 250-yard, three-touchdown game last month against the 49ers. Otherwise, he has one of the league’s worst completion percentages (54.7) despite trying a small number of long passes. The Chiefs have tried fewer passes than all but one other NFL team, making it appear they have little confidence in their passing game.

More info: http://www.kansascity.com/

Goodell speaks publicly on Favre investigation

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says once the league completes its investigation of allegations Brett Favre sent racy messages and lewd photos to a Jets game hostess in 2008, it will "make a determination" if the Vikings quarterback should be punished.

The league is looking into the matter under its personal conduct policy.

"We are going through that and we are making sure we understand all the facts," Goodell said at halftime of the San Diego Chargers-Oakland Raiders game.

Goodell added once the investigation is complete, "we'll make a determination from there."

Should Favre be found to have violated the NFL's conduct policy, he could be fined or suspended.

The website Deadspin posted a story Thursday which included several voicemails allegedly sent by Favre to Jenn Sterger, who worked for the Jets at the time. The voicemails include a man asking to meet with Sterger, who now is a TV personality for the Versus network.

The website posted a video that contained the voicemails and several graphic pictures — said to be Favre — that were allegedly sent to Sterger's cellphone.

The website later reported that Favre also pursued two female massage therapists who worked part time for the team, according to one of the women. Deadspin did not identify the women, but a Jets spokesman said the team was giving contact information for the two women to the league.

Sterger's manager, Phil Reese, has said his client "did not provide Deadspin with any information." And a Deadspin editor said it paid a third party for the material and acknowledged it's possible the man who sent the voicemails and photos may not be Favre.

Favre refused to comment on the stories earlier in the week.

Minnesota is at the Jets on Monday night.

Vikings coach Brad Childress said he talked with Favre about the NFL investigation and that the Deadspin reports have not been a distraction for the team.

"We just talk about what's out there and look it right in the eye and deal with it to the extent we can," Childress said on Saturday. "It doesn't affect anybody else in this locker room, except Brett Favre."

Flacco's comments about Bulger raise eyebrows

Marc Bulger had nothing but kind words for his new organization and his new Ravens teammate, Joe Flacco, when speaking with Baltimore reporters for the first time Thursday. Flacco, on the other hand, has his doubts about the team adding the nine-year veteran and two-time Pro Bowler to a loaded quarterback depth chart.

“Hopefully, we just all get along well,” Flacco told The Baltimore Sun over the weekend. “When you have a little bit of tension in the room, it doesn’t lend to playing well. Yeah, he might bring a thing here or there that helps me out. We’ll see.”

Coming from any other player, these comments would be minor message board fodder for a hot minute before quickly burning up into the blogosphere. After all, it’s not like Flacco went all Mel Gibson on the Ravens for bringing in Bulger.

But when it comes to Joespeak, they raise eyebrows (even big, bushy ones).

Flacco {photo by AP} has never spoken out like this in his two-plus seasons in Baltimore. When it comes to creating controversy, the rising field general has been more like Joe Jonas than Joe Jackson. Apparently, Flacco is looking to assert himself more in 2010.

He insisted it wasn’t personal, that his only concern about the signing of Bulger was how it would affect his teammates.

“I don’t want to have any bad words about Marc,” Flacco said. “I’m sure Marc is a great guy. But I had a great relationship with [backups] Troy [Smith] and John [Beck]. Depending on what happens, one of them might not be around and two of them might not be around. We’ll see what happens.”

Enough with the “we’ll see” lines (I counted three in The Sun’s report). Flacco needs to get over it — roster moves are part of the game — and make fast friends with Bulger during training camp. The 33-year-old former Ram can teach him more than “a thing here or there” about what it takes to be a productive player in the NFL.

Bulger’s performance dipped in the past three years as he stood behind a porous offensive line looking for subpar receivers. But in his prime, he was a top-10 passer.

If that’s not enough, Flacco will be two degrees of separation from Kurt Warner, who Bulger said was a “great mentor” in St. Louis. That secondhand wisdom can only help Flacco as he looks to break out — and win a Super Bowl — in his third season.

“We’ve got the talent to go as far as we want to,” Flacco said in the same interview.

Bulger should be included in that group. He’s an upgrade over Smith — and I’ve been a big supporter of Smith — and Beck. After turning down offers to compete for a starting gig elsewhere, Bulger will be regarded as one of the NFL’s top backups. And should Flacco get hurt, Bulger will sure come in handy for a team desperate to win a Lombardi Trophy this season.

That’s the only way Bulger steps on the field, and he’s cool with that. “I understand that I’m coming in and whatever capacity I can help Joe, I’ll do it,” he said. “It’s just about helping us win football games.”

I doubt Flacco will rock the boat during camp (unless a brand-new, badass Joe Cool shows up in Westminster with a Fu Manchu mustache and a pack of Marlboro Reds rolled up in the sleeve of his practice jersey).

Instead, Flacco will back off and say all the right things about Bulger.

Maybe he’ll give Bulger a fair chance and realize it’s nice to have a savvy vet around — even if it means one of his friends isn’t.

From: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/

Campbell was a major steal

Jason Campbell brings experience and an accurate arm to the Raiders' struggling offense.
In a league in which a half-dozen quarterbacks completed roughly two-thirds of their attempts last season, 10 threw for at least 4,000 yards and 12 tossed 25 touchdown passes or more, the 2009 campaign registered by Jason Campbell might seem relatively unspectacular by comparison.
Starting in all 16 games for the Washington Redskins, in his fifth NFL season, Campbell completed a career-best 64.5 percent of his pass attempts (327-of-507), and the one-time first-round pick (in 2005) also notched career zeniths in yards (3,618) and touchdown passes (20).

So not too bad, right?

Well, for the Oakland Raiders, such otherwise modest passing numbers are deemed downright astronomical.
Not since 2002, when Rich Gannon connected on 67.6 percent of his attempts, have the Raiders employed a starting quarterback with a completion mark in excess of 60 percent. The last time an Oakland quarterback threw 20 or more touchdown passes was in 2005, when Kerry Collins recorded 25. And the Raiders have gone four straight seasons without as many aggregate passing yards as a team as Campbell rang up individually in '09.

So for the Raiders, who ranked No. 29 or lower in the league in passing offense each of the past four seasons, and were last or next-to-last from 2006 to 2008, Campbell represents a dramatic upgrade at the game's most critical position.

"He's brought stability, and leadership, and professionalism," assessed fourth-year tight end Zach Miller, the club's leading receiver in 2009, of Campbell's arrival.

Through Thursday, there have been 17 offseason trades in which a team acquired a veteran player in exchange for a fourth-round draft choice or less. Some of them, such as the New York Jets' addition of Pittsburgh wide receiver Santonio Holmes (although there were extenuating circumstances) for only a fifth-rounder, were flat-out steals. But the Raiders' draft weekend acquisition of Campbell for only a fourth-round pick was arguably the equivalent of a Brink's heist -- especially given the critical nature of the position, Campbell's youth and growth potential, the abject failure of former overall No. 1 pick JaMarcus Russell in Oakland, and the ability to land a starting-pedigree quarterback at such a bargain-basement price.

Rarely in recent years has a starting-caliber quarterback been dealt for so little. Byron Leftwich went from Tampa Bay to Pittsburgh this spring for a seventh-round pick. Ditto for Shaun Hill, acquired by Detroit from San Francisco. But Leftwich is seen as an insurance policy against Ben Roethlisberger's suspension at the start of the '10 season. Hill, who started the first six games for the 49ers in 2009, lost the No. 1 job and, at best, is No. 2 on the Lions' depth chart, behind Matthew Stafford.

Campbell, 28, was deemed expendable by Washington after the Redskins and new coach Mike Shanahan acquired Donovan McNabb from the Philadelphia Eagles. The compensation for McNabb -- a second-round choice in 2010 and a fourth-round pick in 2011 -- was considered more than palatable. But the deal for Campbell, who has 52 starts on his résumé and represents a quantum leap over the inconsistency of the erratic (on and off the field) Russell, might be even more tasty.

In the interest of full disclosure, this correspondent must admit that he has championed Campbell over the past two years, certainly for his embracing the high road following Washington's two previous failed attempts to supplant him, but also because of what is perceived as his potential on the field.

There are some negatives -- Campbell has averaged only 6.63 yards per attempt in his career and dumps off the ball too regularly, has taken way too many sacks, and still lacks some awareness in the pocket. But those negatives are outweighed by the positive components he provides for an Oakland franchise whose progress has been slowed by the flawed Russell experiment.

For sure, Campbell doesn't represent the laid-back Bay Area stereotype. He is competitive and passionate about the game, and his even-keeled nature probably helps camouflage a fiery persona. But he also has a strong arm, is accurate (a 62.4 percent completion rate in his three full seasons as a starter) and understands the game. And the former Auburn standout, who spent some time in Hattiesburg, Miss., throwing with Brett Favre this spring, won't tarnish the Golden Gate image.

While the deal to Oakland represents another change in coordinator for Campbell, who has experienced a revolving door at the position since his tenure at Auburn, the relationship with first-year Raiders offensive coordinator Hue Jackson should be beneficial.

Said Campbell after a recent minicamp: "Things are coming along."

One ancillary benefit to having the more stable Campbell, who has received solid reviews from his new teammates, is that an Oakland defense that includes some compelling players should benefit from having a less erratic offense. The unit, which ranked 26th in overall defense in 2009, should make good progress.

The Raiders have been a chic pick by the pundits at this early juncture to be one of the league's most improved clubs in 2010. I don't yet share that view. But if the Raiders are among the NFL surprises this season, Campbell is likely to garner the lion's share of the credit.

Which as the steal of the offseason, at least in my view, he should.

From: http://sports.espn.go.com/