Unfortunately, You're Still Chris Baker

As you may have read about on ESPN.com on Monday night, Jets tight end Chris Baker is highly upset about being the lowest paid on his team at that position. After the free agent acquisition that landed an aging Bubba Franks and this weekends first-round selection of Dustin Keller, Baker, the starter, has decided to sit out until rewarded.

Rewarded for what? Baker had what some are daring to call a breakout season in '07 with 40+ catches that racked up in excess of 400 yards and three scores.

That's it. And while anything out of the tight end in New York is considered nothing less than a Godsend (see Anthony Becht...better yet, don't) those type of statistics are still poor. In hopes to improve an offense that struggled to look like one last season, the Jets have pulled various strings through free agency and the draft to improve their stagnancy.

"I've been here for six years," Baker led into his heated message on Monday. That is maybe where he should have ended it, because even a die hard Jets fan like myself only remembers the past few mediocre seasons.

"I needed to let it be known that I'm not happy and nothing is being addressed with my contract," Baker later added.

And now with him as expendable as ever, nothing appears to be in the near future. I appreciate where Baker is coming from as a guy who just wanted the franchise he tried so hard to help to return the favor. But this is the nature of this beast that we call professional football and apparently Chris does not watch ESPN as guys like Shaun Alexander (who has put together a slightly better resume) are cut on a daily basis. He should find his remote though, because by the look and sound of this, he could be seeing his name strolling on the bottom line any day now.

Andre' the Giant

So originally we all thought Andre’ would be a top 10-15 pick. At one point I remember having a conversation with one of our former readers about how Dre’ would be off the board by the time the Bears picked in the first round (guess that prediction was a little wrong). Then he started slipping and we heard late first round….then 2nd-3rd round. Turns out he was picked with the 198th pick in the draft, toward the end of the 6th round by the New York football Giants. The odds of him making their roster seem unlikely with Peyton’s little bro, J-Lo, and one of the most disappointing #1 picks in NFL history (David Carr, not Tim Couch) currently under contract. Honestly, I don’t completely understand why Dre’’s draft stock plummeted but hopefully he can use this slight as motivation and have a solid career (as long as its not with the Bengals, Browns, or Patriots).

60 Minutes

I know that for many people the NFL Draft is nothing to watch, but everything to read about the next day. However, today is that rare exception.

If you can find your way to a television about 4 P.M. today, you will see Commish Roger Goodell step to the podium and announce that, "With the sixth pick in the NFL Draft, the New York Jets have selected..." If McFadden is still on the board and the first syllable is not "Dare", expect half of Radio City Music Hall to make ears bleed with their chorus of disdain, while the other half unfasten their belts in hopes of hanging themselves with the strap.

Jets fans take over the draft every year and even stuck it to Mike Nugent, whom they drafted in the second round and desperately needed. One of the first years that I can remember being a Jets fan, the faithful allowed their feelings to be known when Kyle Brady was selected above one W-Sapp. That response will pale in comparison should the announcement of a defensive play maker like Vernon Gholston is announced leaving McFadden to fall to seven and the New England Patriots.

Here is to hoping that some sanity is left in this world when I go to bed tonight.

Are We Still On?

I'm completely aware of the now seemingly defunct nature of this blog and can only apologize to anyone who was actually a regular viewer. The most honest answer I can give is that sometimes life gets in the way of reporting regularly to a blog where you're not entirely sure what to say anyways.

On a less broad topic, I must say that as I'm at home listening to the 'Best of Bowie', I cannot help but think about the past. Not the whole past, but my past in regards to David Bowie. For the record I love Bowie and think that he is just the personification of pop. However the funniest part of the whole story is that the first David Bowie song that I remember hearing and knowing that it was Bowie was the tragic "I'm Afraid of Americans" that is actually on this record. It's a horribly overdone attempt by an aging Bowie to get with the industrial sound that was the later portion of the 90's. He even brought in Trent Reznor (whose ego during this portion matched Bowie's during his heyday) to help in this attempt for a rebirth. And while the song is not exactly the worst that I've ever heard or anything, it just makes me smile thinking that to twelve year old me, David Bowie was an synthesizer-driven industrial rocker who talked about Johnny (the every-American) and hated harmony.

I just cannot help but find some humor in all of that.