Training camp headlines 7/26

Morning and afternoon practices scheduled today.

* Steven Jackson's holdout continues. Jay Zygmunt draws a hard line, though.
My apologies to Bryan Burwell, who nailed exactly what Steven Jackson was going to do. Shame on me for giving Jackson the benefit of the doubt, that he was more about team than himself, that he had the integrity to honor his contract.
Steven Jackson had no fucking business complaining about Rams ticketholders coughing up their seats to Steelers, Packers and Bears fans the last couple of years when he won't even honor his own god damn contract.
Jay Zygmunt and the Rams are completely in the right here. They tried to open negotiations with Jackson early this year. His original agent dumped him. Then he didn't tell the Rams who his new agent was. Nevertheless, the Rams still made him an offer Thursday night that would have made him one of the highest paid running backs in the NFL.
Jackson and his agent rejected that offer yesterday afternoon and announced that Jackson wouldn't report to camp.
Zygmunt said, fine, he's under contract, he'll be fined for every day of practice he misses. And we're not re-opening negotiations until he reports to camp.
Bully, I say, for Jay Zygmunt. There was no reason for this situation to escalate into what it has. Players under contract almost never hold out in the NFL any more, but Eugene Parker's apparently out to become the new Carl Poston. His two marquee clients, Jackson and Devin Hester, have both disrespected their existing contracts in prima donna negotiating ploys, though it's worth noting that Hester's back in Bears camp after a one-day holdout.
Even Rashad, er, Burwell, agrees now that the next step is for Jackson to report to camp. I disagree with Burwell's attitude toward the player/owner contractual relationship. Kurt Warner, Isaac Bruce, Marc Bulger, Torry Holt, Leonard Little, and many others didn't choose to do business the way Jackson and Eugene Parker have. Truly, no Ram player has chosen to do business this way in 10 years, when Jerome Bettis held out and turned himself into a St. Louis football pariah. Hell, even Pace and Carl Poston never pulled their negotiating stunts while Pace was under contract.
Steven Jackson needs to get his petulant ass in training camp. Now.

* Donnie Avery signed to a 4-year deal.
As I posted earlier, the key negotiating ploy here? One very good practice by Keenan Burton. Chuckle.

* Conservative football?
Rush Limbaugh has been making noise that he's interested in buying the Rams.

First off, all of the people in the press who like this or that player or owner - for instance, Steven Jackson - because they're always good for a quote should LOVE Rush Limbaugh. St. Louis' sportswriters should be begging for Rush to buy the team, politics aside, as it should be when you're reporting sports.

But for real, even though Limbaugh just agreed to a deal worth something like 300 or 400 MILLION DOLLARS, even he wouldn't appear to be rich enough to become the majority owner of the Rams. The Rosenblooms' share of the team is valued in that neighborhood. I don't estimate that Rush has the independent wealth to buy that share, and he has already conceded that he would have to go into significant debt to pull off such a purchase. He's more fantasizing out loud than anything else.

Which is a shame, because the man is a huge football fan and I believe he'd be a lot of fun to have around as an owner. But it ain't going to happen.

* Yesterday's crowd was estimated at about 250.
Actually, that compares to some of the weekday crowds the Rams drew in St. Louis last year. It will be interesting to see how well this weekend's practices are attended.

* Rare props for St. Louis media.
My original fears that training camp coverage would be sparse in the local media this year have so far been unfounded. The St. Louis media is all over camp so far. Fox-2 is doing a half-hour report from training camp tonight. I think all the local channels have sent their sports anchors north, at least for now. And Nick Wagoner, Howard Balzer, Jim Thomas and Bill Coats are all turning in yeoman work so far. Coverage has definitely exceeded my expectations so far.