When superstars sign long-term backloaded contracts, teams rarely keep them around long enough to cash in on the lion’s share of the cash. For instance, if Player X signs a 5 year $50 million dollar contract, he won’t receive as much money in years 1 and 2, but will receive lots of money in years 4 or 5. The problem is most teams will ask him to restructure the deal, or simply release him before he gets to the latter years.

Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison are on the latter half of their contracts, and therefore they will receive boatloads of money in 2009, which puts the Indianapolis Colts in a tough position. Peyton counts for 21.2 million against the cap, while Marvin counts for 13.4 mil. We all know Marvin Harrison has lost a step and isn’t worth that much money, but do you think the colts will release him if he refuses to restructure? This will only matter if Marvin chooses not to retire (he should).

What about Peyton Manning though? According to Pro Football Talk he accounts for almost 20 percent of the teams total salary. I know he just won an MVP award and all, but I can’t recall one player actually making this much money in a year without his team pitching a fit.

Ed Reed (pictured below), quietly returns Chad Pennington’s dignity after stealing, stomping, and severely injuring it during Sunday’s massacre of the Dolphins.

Two things happened over the course of the week that struck a note with me.

The first situation with Thomas Jones and Brett Favre….. Thomas went on a radio station and criticized Favre for turning the ball over too many times down the stretch. He also went on to imply Favre should have been benched, and hinted that he does not want Brett back on the team next year.

Do I have a problem with any of this? Absolutely not. Thomas Jones has a right to his opinion, and did the honorable thing and said this in the open, instead of acting as an “anonymous source” to bash a team mate.

The second story that struck a chord was Larry Fitzgerald being accused of domestic violence just days before the biggest game of his career. Not only was Saturday’s game the biggest day of Larry’s career, but it was also Arizona’s first home playoff game since the 1950s. Whether or not the allegations were true is anyone’s guess, but I was pretty shocked to see the media not touch this story with a ten foot pole.

I stepped back and asked myself, what would the media have done if Terrell Owens was the center of either one of these stories? They would have ripped him to shreds, called him a scumbag wife-beating-coward-who-cant-stop-throwing-his-quarterback-under-the-bus. Can you imagine the outrage on “NFL Live” if T.O. slapped a woman a week before the NFL playoffs started…. I can just hear Trey Wingo now… “he just doesn’t care about his team! he’s only thinking about himself!”

But of course, T.O. had nothing to do with this stuff…. so it doesn’t matter right?

Minnesota Timberwolves guard Rashad McCants is dating the ugly Kardashian sister. I bet nobody is happier about this recent turn of events more than Reggie Bush, now he can bring his team mates around the in-laws without someone being stuck with Khloe.

If you think I’m being mean to Khloe, check out this tidbit from With Leather…

“Another Kardashian is chasing jocks. Khloe is supposedly dating the Timberwolves Rashad McCants. Which one of the sisters is she? Is she the one that looks like a linebacker?”

zing.

Have you ever watched a pro wrestling match and wondered if any of their crazy moves would actually work in a real fight? Well the homies over at Fightlinker put together a compilation video showcasing wrestling moves in mixed martial arts competition.

I was a huge wrestling fan growing up (the Monday Night Wars in the late 90s were the most exciting television ever), so this was pretty fun to watch. “The People’s Elbow” at the end had me dying laughing.