NFL Players Gone Wild!

The players still haven't come back to the negotiating table and the draft is a month away, so what are the players doing with all their free time?  Turns out they're getting arrested. 

Green Bay Packers defensive lineman Johnny Jolly was arrested on another drug charge in Houston, this time after police found a container with 600 grams of codeine in it. Another container with an unidentified substance was also found in his car.  I wonder what was in the other container? Sprite with Jolly Ranchers perhaps?  He just wanted his purple drank.  Jolly played all of '08 and '09 for the Packers but was banned last season for breaking the leagues substance abuse policy.  So, he misses last season but the Packers win the Super Bowl anyways, and now he's looking at another suspension and maybe even jail.  I just hope he saved some of the money he made while playing.

But Jolly's not the only one finding themselves on the wrong side of the law.  Eagles tackle Jason Peters was arrested in Shreveport, La., after violating the cities loud music ordinance and resisting arrest.  Sounds bad right?  Turns out the way Peters resisted arrest was by refusing to give the cop his drivers license. Couldn't he have just lied and said he didn't have it with him?  But don't worry, he was able to make bail.  All $628 of it.

Then there's the ridiculous case of Dez Bryant.  Apparently he and his friend ran afoul of the law when an off-duty police officer saw them at a Dallas area mall.  And what was their crime?  Wearing their pants too low.  Seriously, you can't even make this stuff up.  Bryant got upset and said some naughty words and the off-duty cop issued him a warning and threatened to haul him off to mall jail. OK, he didn't actually threaten him with mall jail, but it wouldn't have made the story any more absurd.  Mall spokesman David Margulies had this to say of the situation, "Mr. Bryant is welcome to join the millions of valued customers who shop and dine at NorthPark Center. "  Well, that's at least one thing Bryant no longer has to worry about.

More news from around the NFL after the jump.  

In case you haven't heard, the wonderful people at EA Sports are allowing the fans to chose who will be on the cover of the new Madden '12.  A player was chosen for every team and seeded 1-16 like a march madness bracket.  Fans then get to vote at ESPN Sportsnation.  They're currently in the second round and the Niners very own Patrick Willis is still in it after beating the 12th man of the Seahawks in the first round.  Yes, the Seahawks are so lacking in star power they had their fans representing them.  If the Seahawks did win would they have had a guy with a big fat beer belly and painted face on the cover? It would almost have been worth it to see them win just to see an entire stadium full of people come down with weird freaky injuries thanks to the Madden curse.

Anywhere but here

Carson Palmer has now turned his trade request into a trade ultimatum.  Trade him or he's going to retire.  He says he has $80 million in the bank and will now only play for the love of the game.  Bengals owner Mike Brown, who's miserliness is so legendary there's a rumor he went an entire year using demo copy machine after demo copy machine from a long line of sales reps rather than buy a new one, has stated he has no intention of sending Palmer anywhere.  "I don't see any opportunity to get what I consider to be value," he's reported as saying.  Um,...what!?  Brown's rich enough to own an NFL football team so I have to assume he's not completely clueless.  Here are your options Mike.  1)  You trade Palmer and get whatever you can for him.  Or, 2)  You keep him on the team, he retires, and you get nothing except the satisfaction of knowing you're not going to be told what to do by one of your players.  One of them makes your team better, while the other helps your ego.  Is it really that hard of a choice?  The good news for me about all this, is that no matter how bad things get it could always be worse.  I could be a Bengals fan.

Player Safety

Once upon a time, kickoffs were done from the 35 yard line.  Then the NFL decided kicking off from the 30 would create more return opportunities and make the game more exciting.  Now they've decided player safety is more important so they've moved it back to it's old spot on the 35.  I agree with making the game safe as possible for the players, although I don't know how they can talk about player safety in one breath and then talk about increasing the schedule to 18 games in another, but moving it back to the 35 really limits the big play ability of such players like Josh Cribbs and Devin Hester.  What will they change next?  Is the next move to get rid of kickoffs all together and just start teams out on the 20 yard line?  Maybe one day we won't even be watching players.  Instead the two coaches will meet at a table at midfield, call their offensive and defensive plays, and then roll some crazy 20 sided die to see the outcome of their calls.  Better yet, maybe they'll just play Madden.