I’ve been meaning to put up a Friday trash talk for some time. I tried to convince bmaz to do it. But ever since his man Brett Fav-ruh said no to the Vikes, bmaz has been pouting. And while I hope that Fav-ruh un-retires around mid-season, so bmaz will get out of his funk, on the off-chance that the Kitties are on a resurgance this year, I’m happy that Fav-ruh declined to move back to the neighborhood.
And then I was going to write to note the passing of Jim Johnson. He will be missed.
I thought about doing a pool–enter your guess and win a hubcap!!–about whether and where Mike Vick might try to mend his ways. I’m surprised, frankly, that Al Davis hasn’t picked him up–they might enjoy each others’ company.
But what finally signaled that it’s time to start trashing again is the latest spying scandal in football: players Tweeting during pre-season. The big scandal, of course, is that the pre-season favorite, the San Diego Super Chargers, are feeding their players "nasty food." A secret it cost Antonio Cromartie $2500 to spill.
Cromartie said he was pulled out of a meeting by Twitter cop/head coach Norv Turner and notified that he was being fined. Cromartie also was a given a letter that spelled out the fine.
The fourth-year pro had a good laugh over the matter, but said he’s going to be more careful. Still, he’s not going to stop tweeting.
He also thinks the fine is a bit excessive.
"But other than that, I mean, I ain’t going to take back what I said," Cromartie said after practice Tuesday afternoon. "I said what I had to say. But at the end of the day, I mean, I got fined for talking about nutrition and that. I can’t really say too much else.
"I just thought it was harmless. It was just me talking about the food and stuff. I took it as a joke. But other people took it as a different kind of way."
Cromartie thinks the mole occupies an office somewhere in the team’s executive suite.
Between Cromartie’s leaking of important secrets and Shawne Merriman’s insightful tweets (his most recent as of this posting? "Wow"), I figure this is just enough distraction to keep the Bolts out of the Super Bowl (leaving room for the resurgent Pats).
Let me just make this clear to my buddy BillBel, though. It is NFL policy: no tweeting during games, no tweeting from the stands. So please don’t get caught doing something stupid in the middle of a Jets game. ‘Kay?
And with that, I open up the first offical Pre-Season Trash Talk thread…