JT Hates Money

$500,000 to work out between the months of March and June - just to work out. Then an upcoming salary of $9,000,000 - for one season of play. One season! You would really have to hate to be somewhere to turn down ten million dollars for the next ten months of work. I mean, I know Miami is pretty nice, but just go ahead and make that much money while you still can and then retire anywhere you want. Hell, I would go play in Russia for 10,000,000. I would pack my bags and fly out tomorrow, "Ill see ya in February."

Jason allegedly turned down the $500,000 offer to work out with the Redskins for the off season. When the request was denied the Skins released his rights for the last season of his contract. This was obviously no surprise to JT, who wanted to stay with his family, where they live in Miami.

Now I feel like I'm judging too much and I definitely can't be that guy. Last off season I had a workout bonus of $100,000 to make 80 percent of my workouts and didn't reach it. Granted I got married and missed 10 days for my honeymoon, but I also took a week trip for Drew Brees charity. I was still very close to making the percentage. So just stating the facts of the off season program that I have been a part of for the last five years will suffice.

We will have actual workouts starting on March 16th going into May. These are the weight lifting, running, gaining strength at the gym type of workouts that anyone would expect. Of course we work very hard, but when I go into Redskins park for this type of work I spend no more than three hours in the facility. The requirements for each week are to workout four days and it can be for any four days throughout the week. Mon - Thurs, Tues - Fri or whatever combination of four days you want to make, this schedule also allows a four day weekend every week. Between the months of March and April there will be 28 of these required workouts. As May begins we get into what is called an OTA schedule.(Optional Training Activity) These will be like mini practice days. We will meet in the morning and install plays for the first couple hours, have quick lunch, then go on the field for about an hour and a half. The practices are at a quick tempo, but we wear only helmets, so little contact is involved. The day will usually last from 9 in the morning until 3 in the after noon. The requirements for the off-season end June 12. The total amount of optional/mandatory days is 52.

For JT to reach his 75 percent requirement of the deal would have had to be hear for 39 days. Had he arrived and worked for the 39 days he would have been compensated $12,820 per day. That is unreal to me! Most people pay their own money to go to the gym, but almost 13 thousand dollars a day is a pretty good membership in the other direction. Again, I will not judge this decision and I have no idea what his bank account could possibly be, but that's a shit ton of money. As for my end of the off season, I will be required to make 42 days to reach my bonus. I again would receive a check grossing $100,000. This would pay me $2300 per workout. Still pretty awesome and enough to get me into the gym.

Player Profile: Jason Taylor

CB 5: Life with Jason Taylor

This post is a lot like that TV show on MTV. The one where they say, “You think you know…but you have no idea” and in this case, you have no idea. My name is Colt Brennan. I'm a 6th round rookie QB, grew up in So Cal, played college ball in Hawaii, so I’d say I am a pretty laid back kind of guy. I wonder if they took that into consideration when they decided to issue lockers? Considering they saw fit to put me between Chris Cooley and Jason Taylor. At first you may think, "what an awesome experience," I get to be between two pro bowlers, potential hall of famers, dancers. Every day. For the next 5 months. What dream right? More like what a nightmare.

Chris (considering this will be posted on your blog) you’re a cool guy and it’s been pretty fun easing my way into the NFL watching you on a day-to-day basis. You make everyday a little different. But you’ve also made everyday for me a nightmare...

It all started when Jason decided to be tough guy on me one day, warning if I ever got in his way, or touched any of his stuff he would, "beat my ass.” Following this encounter something happened that soon became an everyday event. At first it was funny, but it eventually became a huge pain in my ass. Whenever Chris got his chance, he would do something. For example: he would take a fresh pair of Jason’s Jordan’s (probably sent directly by Michael Jordan) and hide them in my locker. Or maybe take all my dirty laundry and stack it high in front of Jason’s locker. Or better yet, being the great artist Chris is, he drew cartoons (depicting Jason doing… things not meant for children) and taped them on Jason's locker. In the end, who got blamed for it all? I did. Some stuff he probably actually believed was me, and some stuff he knew that I had played no part in any of it yet still tried to give me the blame. Why? Because he started to gain a lot of enjoyment by seeing me in agony.

Chris then started to lose interest, and he wouldn’t try so hard to implicate me into screwing with Jason, yet things kept happening. Like stolen shoes and computer print outs (that didn’t make Jason look so manly) and Jason began retaliating. All of the sudden I’d find my clothes and stuff piled far from my locker in the middle of the room. I began coming to my locker and seeing white tape out lining the boundaries where I was allowed to go (of course the space was not even reasonable), but that didn’t matter. At this point I suspected that Jason was actually messing with his own stuff just to find reason, to mess with me. Like wrapping my helmet up in tape or dismantling it, just to be a pain. Perhaps his best feat was lacing my helmet and visor with Vaseline, which meant I spent the practice in a slippery helmet and no visor, because I couldn’t see out of it (the Vaseline took forever to wipe off).

So thus, this has been my life for the past couple months, and I’ve come to realize what I am this year, and what maybe a lot of rookies are across the league. I’m their pawn, which they maneuver for their pure enjoyment! But don’t worry all you people out there, this past week, I cut Jason’s shoelace on his custom Jordan cleats. I did it discretely, so when Jason put his cleats on Friday and made his way to the practice field, he leaned down to tighten his shoe, he pulled tight, and. POP! There went his shoelace. They [equipment staff] had to run and get some new shoes for him to wear at practice that day, and at first he thought it was just a random occurrence. Well when he finally looked around and saw an out of the ordinary number of eyes watching and smiling, he knew something was up. He Blamed Chris!!

NFL in the Olympics??

Friday marked the beginning of what is arguably the greatest combined sporting event in the world, The 2008 Summer Olympics. Every four years we have this unique opportunity to watch the best athletes from around the globe compete in their respective sports for a chance at the Gold. Undoubtedly over the next 21 days hearts will be broken and controversy will ensue. How could it not? The games are in China!

However, I realized this week that some of the most elite athletes in the world will not have the opportunity to participate. Instead they are busting their buts in training camps around the country preparing for what will certainly be a unique and unpredictable season as 32 teams all prepare to compete to be crowned the 2009 NFL Champion of the world. It is truly unfortunate that global expansion by the NFL (NFL Europa) failed miserably and American football will never receive consideration to become an Olympic sport. Honestly, is there no place for American football in the Olympics? I know I would prefer to watch badminton, synchronized swimming and archery….right. Although the Brazilian synchronized swimming twins should do wonders to increase their sports popularity.

If there cannot be a place for the entire sport, there must be a place for its individual athletes, right? I am sure we all remember Hershel Walker’s and Jeremy Bloom’s failed attempts. But to date has there ever been an NFL athlete who has competed and won a medal in the Olympics?

Just think how interesting it would be to see the following NFL athletes compete in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games:

Jason Taylor: Fencing. Did you see his footwork during Dancing with the Stars? Plus, just think about the wing span advantage he would have over his opponents.
Steve Smith: Boxing. Anthony Bright and Ken Lucas can attest to his boxing skills.
The Manning Brothers: Handball. Come on. You score by throwing a ball just smaller than a football through a goal.
Deangleo Hall: Track & Field. He runs a 4.15 40 yard dash.
Larry Allen: Weightlifting. Just watch him bench press 700 lbs.
Chris Cooley: Greco Roman Wrestling. He was an All-American wrestler in high school and the US undoubtedly needs a new face for wrestling to replace Rulon Gardner. Who better?

My point is that not only are we are missing out on watching some of the most elite athletes in the world compete, but they too are missing out on a great and patriotic opportunity to win a medal for their country. Don’t we need a little more excitement than Dara Torres?

Posted by Jake Stewart

Free Stuff!!

Jason Taylor made a huge impact in the locker room his first week of training camp. The team arrived to the locker room prior to an afternoon practice finding a heap of stacked boxes in front of Jason's locker. Very shortly after, Jason started handing out everything Michael Jordan. I'm not talking about a couple shirts, guys were packing back four or five pairs of shoes, shorts, hats, anything you can think of with the Jordan logo on it. This was taken as an extremely grateful gesture by all the guys, some even teased it was his way of making quick friends. To my surprise, a week later and the Michael Jordan Christmas was on again. This time more guys were aware of what was going on, and because the first handout went so well the crowd quickly grew to over 20 players. From all accounts the second MJ handout was even more successful than the first.

Thursday, week three Redskins training camp and why wouldn't there be another enormous shipment of Jordan gear to Taylor's locker. Were talking thousands of dollars in gear and although it took me three weeks to gain interest into what was going on, I'm now hooked. Jason says, "They (Nike) just send me all the new stuff they're working on, I mean all the new colors and styles and I try 'em out." Well, not just Jason Taylor is trying out the new Nikes, because by handout number three, 40 Redskins were wrestling for anything they could get their hands on. If I didn't know better I would have thought it was a bunch of little kids swarming and begging for Jason's autograph, but the only name that mattered in our locker room was Michael Jordan. Some came away with boxes of goodies and some came away wanting.

I'm proud to say I came away with a couple great blog pictures, so everyone can thank me for sacrificing new shorts for the blog. Hahaha. (Some times I feel like I have to make the sarcasm obvious.) Before we walked out to practice Jason told me, "This will happen at least every two weeks and guys will never get used to it. I never know half the stuff they're sending cause it's gone so fast."

Welcome Mr. Taylor, now you and LaRon can hit people for $ together.

Chris decided there would be no update today because I think he went to bed around 9:45. So I decided to give you a few things for you to check out while we wait for tomorrow's practice.

First I am very excited that the Skins got Jason Taylor. Not quite as excited as the female Redskins fans but more excited than the other NFC east QB's.


I also wanted to give you guys something exciting since it has been so long since we have seen real football. So this was one of the best I could find of LaRon Landry.