Players in the NFL require a certain amount of perspective

Let’s try an NFL story about someone without the initials T.O. In fact, let’s try three of them.

• Starting close to my home, one wonders what’s going on with Deion Branch, wide receiver for the New England Patriots. What’s he asking for? And just what are the Pats offering? As of Friday, the Patriots are offering perspective. Reports from Foxboro have Belichick and Pioli permitting Branch to seek a trade and even negotiate the terms of such a deal. The point? The Patriots are happy with Reche Caldwell, Troy Brown and their first round draft pick, Chad Jackson. What’s exceptionally interesting about this move is the Patriots’ full-blown lack of sentimentality. Branch won the Super Bowl MVP Award. He’s been a solid performer, a little injury-prone, but emerged in the last regular season as one of the Pats’ two best receivers. The other? Currently with the Tennessee Titans, David Givens (who joined the Pats in the same draft as Branch did) wanted at least #2 pay, and the Pats, well… let’s just call the Pats prudent with their money. (Or, if you’re so inclined, I suppose, you could call them cheap.)
• Tennessee head coach Jeff Fisher promises that Adam Jones (I refuse to call him “Pac Man,” despite my West Virginia leanings, because Pac Man a)isn’t on his driver’s license or mug shot and b) Pac Man is a trademark owned by Namco or Midway or someone not named Adam Jones, and whoever owns the trademark should send him a cease-and-desist letter) will be suspended for a single game given his most recent brush with the law. Since being drafted sixth overall by the Titans in the ‘05 draft, Jones has managed to be arrested for his involvement in a drug distribution scheme, being involved in two nightclub scuffles, and being at a gas station that ”coincidentally” erupted into the scene of a gun battle. Fisher claims that whether or not Jones is guilty of the charges against him that he earned his single preseason game suspension because “such behavior will not be accepted.” Whatever. What Jones should be especially wary of now, though, is the league’s involvement. How many strikes are there in the NFL, anyway? I loved him as a Mountaineer (though often felt he was overhyped, and never felt the nickname fit him anyway), but one game? In the preseason? Jones should lose a month’s worth of his base salary every time someone even breathes his name in a nightclub. Especially since Jones took it upon himself to “show the ropes” to this past draft’s first round pick, Vince Young. The young man has a spotty history, and these things happen. But, someone (Deion Branch, perhaps, who continues to lose $14,400 each day he doesn’t report to the team) needs to give Jones a good slap across the face, or he’ll simply be one of those talents who “could have been.”
• Earlier this week, the New York Jets finally successfully traded for a running back who might be able to stay on the field for them. Provide production? For the San Francisco 49ers, running back Kevan Barlow hasn’t provided enough to win a starting position. Subsequently, his lack of productivity made him trade bait. When the Jets came calling, head coach Mike Nolan and Niners personnel staff opted to let him go. For most guys, being traded to a place where he might have an opportunity to win a starting position would be a welcome, if surprising, bit of news. Barlow was less than pleased. He compared Nolan to Hitler, and called him a dictator on his way out of town. While Barlow realized (a little too late) that his comments were at least hyperbolic, and attempted to take them back, he confessed to speaking under extreme emotion. So, here’s my question? Why was he so pissed? Did Nolan text him to inform him of his trade? Did Nolan spit on his stuff as he boxed it up and sent it to New York? Did Nolan’s message on his cell phone inform him that he was going, but his dogs were staying in San Fran? Nolan did him a favor: he sent him to a team that currently has no starting running back. The perfect place for Barlow to finally become a starter, and he grouses about the move that sends him there. Complains about the tactics of his now former coach. Wait till he gets to New York and learns what dictatorship is all about.