NFL Jabber 3/29/07

Levi Jones is finally giving his take on what happened in Vegas with Joey Porter on the Bengals website.

"One versus seven, six from behind,'' Jones told the website. 'The police report came out and told the truth. Joey Porter did not kick Levi Jones' [butt]. Basically what he did was walk up to me, get my attention talking trash while his boys jumped me from behind. They plotted the thing. He was shooting craps. I was playing blackjack. He saw me, there was no exchange before he just came up on me.''

Browns GM Phil Savage is trying real hard to act not interested in JaMarcus Russell. He reportedly asked one member of the media to stop linking the Browns to Russell. Hmmmmm...

Speaking of The Browns and QB...apparently Savage talked with Chiefs GM Carl Peterson yesterday about Trent Green.

“We agreed to talk some more later this week or the first of next week,” Peterson said. “He said he wants to talk some more with his head coach and his offensive coordinator. But he did ask whether this thing was over with. I said, ‘No, not at all.’

“Cleveland would make sense to me because Trent played very well against them last year.”

Rod Marinelli is putting a focus on character with this years top choice. Isn't that the PC thing to say with Pacman and Chris Henry's trip to the Principles office all over the news?

"When you bring somebody in at that level, that's a lot," the Lions coach said Wednesday. "You know them as a player. That's not good enough. The guy can't have holes. The No. 1 thing we look at right now is character."

After throwing a little tantrum about going to Denver, and talks of a trade, Dre Bly came to a deal with the team. He agreed in principle to a five-year deal yesterday.

Micky Loomis is reaping the benefits of the Saints turnaround season. He won The Sporting News' George Young NFL Executive of the Year Award yesterday.

"It's special to be recognized by your peers," said Loomis, the Saints' executive vice president/general manager who also won the Pro Football Writers Executive of the Year award this year. "I just stood on the shoulders of a lot of people in our building who did a remarkable job during the last 19 months under difficult circumstances.

"I want to thank Tom Benson for giving me the opportunity to work with the Saints and for giving us the resources we needed. And I want to thank Sean Payton for the coaching job he did, but I'm a little more grateful for the courage he showed in accepting the job when we were coming off a 3-13 season and when we didn't know where we'd play or how livable our city was."

TINO's Bloghouse
tag: NFL, draft, free agency, trade, saints, broncos, lions, browns, chiefs, dolphins, steelers, bengals,levi jones, joey porter, jamarcus russell, trent green, phil savage, carl peterson, rod marinelli, dre bly, micky loomis