Rosenhaus: T.O. is fine, not retiring, will be ready in August

Drew Rosenhaus, agent for Terrell Owens, called into "SportsCenter" Tuesday to talk about the reports that Terrell Owens was considering retirement after tearing his ACL.

You're not going to believe this, but Rosenhaus framed T.O.'s recovery in a positive light. From the AP:

In an interview with ESPN, Rosenhaus called speculation that Owens was considering retirement "nonsense" and said the 15-year veteran is doing "fantastic" and could be recovered as early as August.

Rosenhaus said Dr. James Andrews performed the surgery to the same knee in which Owens tore his meniscus late last year.

"The old injury has been repaired," Rosenhaus said. "He is many months into recovery and doing fantastic. No predictions on training camp, but he comes back fast from injuries. I won't rule him out of anything. He will be a starting receiver for someone this year."

Rosenhaus also called the injury "no big deal," which is the first time�I've ever heard an ACL tear described as "no big deal." Apparently, Doctor Rosenhaus has been spending his lockout time in the lab, engineering significant scientific advances in how we treat complete tears of the anterior cruciate ligament. Bless his heart.

Obviously, it's no surprise that Rosenhaus thinks Owens can recover from this. That's his job, and it might also be his personal opinion, as Terrell Owens has recovered remarkably well from injuries before.

But that Owens is willing to play and that Owens will play are two different things. He'll still need to find a team, and even if the injury is as minor as Rosenhaus would have you believe, it's certainly still going to give teams pause before signing Owens to a contract.

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Training camp rosters could grow for 2011

Most of the NFL news day has been dominated by leaking tidbits about how both sides really like each other now, and that a deal is closer to getting done. I don't know how much any of that means, or if it's even true, especially since there are also whispers to the contrary.

One moderately interesting specific thing that's emerged though, is the possibility of expanded training camp rosters. The current limit is 80, but with lost time potentially being a factor, some general managers would like to push that up to about 90 this year. From the NFL Network's Jason La Canfora:

There is concern among many coaches and executives about how fit players will be whenever they report, and the suspicion among many is that there will be a rash of injuries. Teams will need to have enough bodies around to sustain the rush. Furthermore, with undrafted free agency now coming deep in the offseason instead of directly after the draft, the time to work with and evaluate those players will be significantly compromised as well.

To that end, some general managers would support expanding the practice squad by a spot or two as well, though that topic has not been broached by the competition committee to this point.

La Canfora also quotes one general manager as saying that he doesn't know how any other GM would oppose the idea. I can't imagine why they would, either, but I could picture an owner -- Mike Brown of the Bengals comes to mind -- who might have a small fit about having to pay 10 extra guys.

I don't see a downside, really. A team gets to look at an additional 10 guys, and who knows, maybe a diamond emerges from the rough, and one of the extras makes a roster. If not, you've still got 10 more bodies to absorb punishment through training camp and take reps in preseason games that you just want to end.

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Panthers lead list of teams on the hook with new projected salary floor

Before Tuesday's owners meetings, several sources reported that there was a small group of owners opposed to terms in the owners' prospective offer to the players. Whether that was the case, or whether a few hyperactive lawyers tried to get a little clutch of opposing voices together to make things more "interesting" is uncertain, but there is a definite sense that when all 32 owners got together in Chicago to vet the particulars of the newest offer, anyone opposed for financial reasons was going to get steamrolled right out of the process. It's fast approaching the time when all owners stand to lose serious money from an abbreviated or cancelled preseason, which is one reason so many things�were crossed off on that one-day meeting before the owners traveled to Boston to meet again with the players and try to finally nail down the parameters of the NFL's next collective bargaining agreement.

Estimates say that when a deal is struck, the 2011 salary cap could be anywhere from $110 to $130 million, depending on who you're reading or listening to. �For our purposes, we'll go with an even $124 million, which was the approximate cash commitment per team in 2010, when there wasn't a salary cap. Based on that number, it's very easy to see which teams would be violently opposed to a 90 percent-plus cash guarantee each year, because their cash commitments in recent years have been so far below the average. That new floor would require commitments of at least $110 million with a reasonable cap, and as you're about to see, many teams aren't even in the same zip code right now.

2011 numbers are still variable and non-indicative to a degree, because we don't know what the rookie signings will take up ? we don't even know if there will be a rookie pool (though we can assume there will be). Franchise tags and other designations will have to be re-set with a new CBA, because of the high possibility that free agency will revert to a four-year concern after the six-year term in 2010. As such, these numbers are approximate and are not intended to be a 100 percent accurate barometer of what each team has spent. But in adding together six key totals for each team ? base salaries, signing bonuses, option bonuses, roster bonuses, workout bonuses, and incentives likely-to-be-earned incentives, we can get a fairly clear picture of who's doing what ? and who's not. Not-likely-to-be-earned incentives clauses are one of the primary 'funny-money' machinations in the NFL, and as such, we're not including them here.

So, again, keep in mind that all these numbers are approximate, but close, to a pre-CBA scenario. Thanks to Brian McIntyre of Football Outsiders and Mac's Football Blog for providing the base numbers. Here are the five lowest cash-commitment teams, in reverse order.

Carolina Panthers
2011 Cash: $57.9 million
2011 Cap: $76.8 million
Cash % of Cap: 75.4%
Pct. Of $124 million Cap: 47%

Tampa Bay Buccaneers
2011 Cash: $64.4 million
2011 Cap: $64.7 million
Cash % of Cap: 99.5%
Pct. Of $124 million Cap: 52%

Cleveland Browns
2011 Cash: $65.0 million
2011 Cap: $87.8 million
Cash % of Cap: 74.0
Pct. Of $124 million Cap: 52.4%�

Indianapolis Colts
2011 Cash: $73.8 million
2011 Cap: $100.7 million
Cash % of Cap: 73.3
Pct. Of $124 million Cap: 59.5%

Buffalo Bills
2011 Cash: $75.3 million
2011 Cap: $89.5 million
Cash % of Cap: 84.1
Pct. Of $124 million Cap: 60.8%

According to the data used for this article, 22 of the NFL's 32 teams would be under 80 percent of cash obligations were there a $124 million salary cap in 2011. Now, of course, many teams will plug those holes with their own roster reclamations -- the Colts will put a high eight-figure total (estimated at over $23 million per prior league rules) into franchising Peyton Manning unless a long-term deal gets done between team and quarterback. Other franchises, like the Panthers, have a laundry list of players that they would have liked to have re-signed in previous years ? under the new rules, they'd be�beholden to do so.

In a larger sense, the fact that 14 teams would be under 70 percent of cash obligations in that $124 million scenario might lead you to two conclusions: There are owners using revenue sharing as a cash grab without putting adequate resources back into their player costs, and there are other owners who are very, very tired of that trend. I've said all along that the main reason the owners oppose opening the books to a line-by-line audit is not because they're afraid that the players will find out how much profit they're clearing ? anyone with half a brain can deduce that NFL team ownership is a license to print American currency. The real issue is that the NFL doesn't want a script where the big-market owners like Jerry Jones (and say what you will about the Double-J; he does roll serious cash back into his team) would pull revenue sharing off the table because they're sick of paying seven-figure "bonuses" for relatives of other owners. �

If you're the ownership group of the Green Bay Packers (a league-leading $115.8 million in 2011 cash obligations), or the New York Jets (second-place with $113.5 million), or the owners of the eight other teams over the $100 million cash floor pre-CBA (the Redskins, 49ers, Falcons, Broncos, Rams, Cowboys, Lions, and Giants), how do you feel about the hoarders right now?

That's why having the mandatory high floor is so crucial for both sides in a new collective bargaining agreement, and why the health of the league would be further affected without it.

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Video: Nice catch, soldier! Vet nabs foul ball at Yankee Stadium

Friday night was already shaping up to be a good one for Michael Kacer.

He took his 13-year-old nephew, Isaiah, to his first New York Yankees game. And as part of a group with Achilles International ? a nonprofit organization devoted to athletes with disabilities ? Kacer got to hang out on the field before the game, meeting Nick Swisher and posing for a photo with Joe Girardi. Kacer served 11 years in the National Guard and lost his left arm in a 2008 rocket attack.

But the night got even better after the game began. During the Yankees' half of the first inning, Curtis Granderson popped a foul ball behind home plate. The ball caromed off the concrete just inside the wall and bounced up toward the next level of seats. Kacer reached out over the railing and caught the ball with his cap. No sweat.

Here's the video, courtesy of MLB.com:�

Kacer needed a little prompting from his nephew before springing into action.

"He's like, 'Get up and catch it,'" Kacer said, "'and I'm like, 'It's going nowhere near me.

"And then I watched it bounce and I'm like, 'I ... might ... be able ... to get it,' and it just happened to go right in the hat. So it makes for a great souvenir for him."

It also makes for a great video for us to watch. Nice catch, sir.

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Mandate for Change: Michigan hails Brady Hoke, its halcyon hope

New coaches and the schools that love them (for now). Previously: Todd Graham, Pittsburgh, Al Golden, Miami, Jon Embree, Colorado, Jerry Kill, Minnesota. Today: Michigan's Brady Hoke.

? The Old Guy. There's not much left to write about Rich Rodriguez that hasn't been written many, many times over the last three years, and then written again. But it probably is worth beginning with a pair of reminders. One: RichRod's record over the course of turning West Virginia into a short-lived national power made him an attractive hire in December 2007 ?�Alabama tried to hire him the previous December, and thought it had, before aiming its checkbook at Nick Saban ?�and two: The tumbleweed-strewn lineup left by the Lloyd Carr administration mandated a rebuilding period regardless of who inherited it. In fact, after four straight defeats against Ohio State and eternal humiliation at the hands of Appalachian State in Carr's final season, a fresh start under an outsider who intensified workouts, expanded recruiting into Florida and traded old-school brawn for the speed and misdirection of a 21st Century spread attack was an integral part of Rodriguez's appeal.

Forty years removed from their last losing season, however, Michigan fans' idea of "patience" did not include a home loss to Toledo, a 3-9 record, a last-place finish in the Big Ten, the complete collapse of the defense, the arrival of probation for the first time in school history or the extension of the losing streak against the Buckeyes to seven years, with no end in sight. They certainly didn't include a head coach who tears up to the strains of Josh Groban in public.

Even beyond his 0-9 record against Ohio State, Michigan State or Penn State, Rodriguez's lack of Maize-n-Blue pedigree divided a fan base that clutches its history to its chest like the family pearls. Even after three full years, he still had to insist that, yes, he truly did "want to be a Michigan man." But too many people were never convinced, and after the 52-14 debacle at the hands of Mississippi State in the Gator Bowl, even his defenders were too tired of waiting to protest much when new athletic director Dave Brandon decided to pull the plug.

? The New Guy. At the time, of course, Rodriguez's exit was accompanied by the hope that the job would lure one of two accomplished prodigal sons, ex-Wolverines Jim Harbaugh and Les Miles. Officially, Brandon admitted to talking to both but insisted he never offered either; in reality, it looked like two big whiffs on a pair of swings for the fences, followed by a seeing-eye single: Brady Hoke.

At least Brady Hoke was excited. An Ohio native, Ball State alum and longtime Wolverine assistant under Lloyd Carr, Hoke made no secret even while still employed at San Diego State that Michigan is his dream job, the endpoint he's been aiming for most of his career. He also fits at least the first two criteria Brandon laid out for Rodriguez's replacement, as Hoke is both a) An experienced head coach, with stints at Ball State and San Diego State; and b) A defensive coach, having presided over one of the most dominant units on one of the dominant defenses in the last 20 years as defensive line coach for Michigan's 1997 national championship team ? a far cry from the rock-bottom units that struggled as Big Ten whipping dog under beleaguered defensive coordinator Greg Robinson.

Hoke's track record for producing winners is less obvious, beginning with his actual record: Just 47-50 in eight years as a head coach. He does have two major credits over the last three years, the first for resurrecting Ball State as an undefeated MAC frontrunner in 2008. He got out of Muncie just in time to avoid a crippling exodus of talent after that season, and had his new team (now his old team), San Diego State, in a bowl game last year for the first time since 1998. After a solid decade as Mountain West doormats, the Aztecs won nine in Hoke's second year, with all four losses came by a combined 15 points.

But the new boss' most obvious asset is his willingness and ability to serve as the symbol of Michigan's official repudiation of Rodriguez. So far, Hoke's resum� hasn't mattered nearly as much as his success in evoking the halcyon days of yore among Carr-era alumni, who have yet to tire in their praise of deep respect for tradition and insistence on building a "physical" presence from the sissified remnants of the spread. The fact that he was able to make the best hire of the offseason by luring former colleague Greg Mattison from the Baltimore Ravens to resurrect the conference's worst defense doesn't hurt, either.

? Immediate Impact or Slow Burn? It may sound like sour grapes when Rodriguez says in interviews that he finally had the team in position to win this fall, if only he'd been given one more chance, but on paper it's hard to argue with him: His teams improved each season ?�from three wins to five to seven ?�and with electric quarterback Denard Robinson leading nine returning starters from the conference's most prolific offense, the Wolverines were probably a new defensive coordinator away from turning the corner under the old administration. Instead, Hoke inherits a veteran roster in far better position to deliver something resembling a vintage Michigan season than the attrition-ravaged bunch Rodriguez took on in 2008.

His arrival also coincides with the ongoing disintegration to the south, where Ohio State will roll into Ann Arbor on Nov. 26 without either of Rodriguez's chief tormenters, Jim Tressel and Terrelle Pryor, and possibly with far less to play for if the NCAA is feeling particularly vindictive. If the emergency coach and/or quarterback transfer doesn't take, the Buckeyes' streak in the rivalry is in serious jeopardy for the first time since the epic 1 vs. 2 showdown in Columbus in 2006.

The optimism is tempered by the philosophical shift under new offensive coordinator Al Borges, whose West Coast-y system figures to give Robinson far fewer opportunities to run than Rodriguez's "spread 'n shred," which was designed specifically around the quarterback as a threat to run. (Robinson personally accounted for 67 percent of the team's total offense last year as a runner and passer.) But the defense can't possibly be worse, and with Mattison, is likely to be dramatically better. Hoke may not be a better coach than Rodriguez, and his first team may not achieve anything it couldn't or wouldn't have under the old regime. His first team should be better than any of Rodriguez's offerings, though, possibly by a wide margin, and the good vibrations will buy him all the time his predecessor never had.

- - -
Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

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Jim Riggleman parties as the rest of us pass judgment

Soon after he stepped down as manager of the Washington Nationals on Thursday, Jim Riggleman retired to Caddies on Cordell in Bethesda, Md.�Why did Riggs head there?

"I was solving the world's problems," Riggleman told a local radio station on Friday.

Also, the ladies: "There are some beautiful young ladies in that place," he said.

Apparently so, judging from the pics snapped by @jskiernan. �But while Riggleman was celebrating his new unemployment in a way that many of us might ? at the bottom of a bottle ? the baseball world was still buzzing about his spectacular (and backfired) power play on Mike Rizzo and the Lerner family.

Here's a sampling of what we've been saying:

Dave Sheinin, Washington Post: "Riggleman's unhappiness over his contract situation had been an open secret around the team almost since the day it was signed, Nov. 9, 2009. Although the Nationals called it a three-year deal at the time, it was more accurately a two-year guaranteed deal with a low buyout after the first season and a team option for 2012 ? effectively keeping Riggleman on a year-to-year basis, and at a salary, $600,000, that ranked among the lowest in the game"

Will Yoder, The Nats Blog: "Leaving the team was the lowest thing he could have done. As stated above, I understand his frustration, for me it would be maddening. But think about the other people involved. The team had built this undeniable chemistry, the fans were falling in love, and you're the god-forsaken manager of the club. You can't quit halfway through, you signed a contract just like the players did."

Ben Schwartz, Can't Stop the Bleeding: "So, Riggleman left his pennant-guaranteed .507 club high and dry because he didn't get the deal he wanted.� Owners do that every day, as is their privilege as "businessmen."� This is the same Riggleman who watched the Padres deal Gary Sheffield and Fred McGriff out from under him in their 'fire sale.' Do owners ever get blackballed for such bull----?� Do we ever hear how they'll never work again, no matter how much they sell out the concept of winning?"

Nats Enquirer: "Gotta wonder if this is the kind of change Jayson Werth had in mind when he was 'misinterpreted' by the media a few weeks ago when the ship was sinking in Milwaukee?�It's always something with this team."

Ken Rosenthal, FOX Sports: "Let's forget Riggleman for a moment. Let's go back to Sept. 24, when someone even more highly regarded than Riggleman resigned from the Nationals.�Stan Kasten worked 24 years for Ted Turner, one of the most eccentric owners in sports history. He lasted only four years with the Lerners.�Gee, wonder why."

Dave Nichols, Nats News Network: "As in everything else in life, there are three side[s] to every story: yours, mine and the truth.� We may never know the complete truth on how things went down leading up to Thursday's announcement, but we have a pretty good handle on the big picture �... What we know is this:� Rizzo had no reason to pick up the option or even discuss it.� Doing so would give away the only option he had in the managerial structure for next year's team.� 2011 isn't about wins, despite the outrageous hot streak that have the Nats at 37-36 at play's end today.� It's about evaluation, of players ? both major and minor league ? and the managerial and coaching staff.� Picking up Riggleman's option was simply not something Rizzo needed or wanted to do."

Jeff Passan, Yahoo! Sports: "He grew up in Rockville, Md., a little more than 20 miles from Nationals Park, and wanted to be the hometown boy who turned the hometown team into a winner.�So he waited until the Nationals were playing their best baseball to see if that was realistic. If ever Washington was going to pick up his option, it would be now. So he made a threat. Rizzo called his bluff."

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Mariners prevail in first NL game played in an AL ballpark

SEATTLE ? The first question Seattle Mariners manager Eric Wedge was asked in his pre-game presser on Friday night: "Do you think you'll get confused tonight?"

It wasn't meant to cast aspersions on Wedge's intelligence or awareness; more to wonder if Wedge would get tripped up putting a National League lineup together in his own park. Because of a U2 concert scheduled at Sun Life Stadium, the Florida Marlins had to come cross-country to play a series of three "home" games at Seattle's Safeco Field instead of welcome the Mariners to their own park. As such, pitchers would hit in an AL park for the first time since the inclusion of the designated hitter in 1973.

"I hope not," Wedge said when asked whether confusion would reign. "It'll definitely be different with the National League rules and with being the visiting team … in our own ballpark, and hopefully, it'll be fun for a lot of people. This is the first time there will be National League rules in an American League park. That will be more unusual than anything."

As it turned out, a great many things were unusual about the first game in which the Mariners ever took the field at Safeco in the bottom of the inning, wearing their road grays. The fact that NL rules applied seemed like a mere novelty by the time the same was over and the M's took a 5-1 win.

First, the numbers from this game were a bit convoluted. The attendance was unusually low (15,279) because these games are not included in season ticket packages. According to the Mariners' PR staff, the attendance will be counted as a Marlins home crowd, but the game stats from the series will be Mariners' home stats. Problem is, those stats will be seen as Marlins home/Mariners road splits until Major League Baseball changes them on Monday.

The only area that was anywhere near full was the "King's Court," that band of yellow-clad goofballs who take up their own left-field section whenever Felix Hernandez pitches. Though Hernandez started out rocky ? 21 of his first 42 pitched were balls, and it took him a couple innings to get in the swing of things ? he eventually got it together and even contributed a single to right in the third inning.

Unfortunately for Hernandez, that was the second straight game in which a Mariners' pitcher got the team's first hit ? Michael Pineda did the same against the Washington Nationals on the team's just-finished road trip ? which should tell you everything you need to know about the tepid state of Seattle's offense. When Adam Kennedy scored in the seventh on a fielder's choice line drive that Miguel Olivo hit to third, it ended a 20-inning scoreless streak for the team. Eventually, Franklin Gutierrez's two-run single eliminated a lot of bad juju from a brutal offensive series in Washington D.C.

The Marlins weren't doing much with Hernandez, either. The only run Hernandez gave up was on a third strike that would have ended the fourth inning had it not bounced off Olivo's glove. As Marlins manager Jack McKeon pointed out after the game, it's tough to win when you have more hit batsmen than hits.

Olivo had his own group of admirers in the "King's Court" group.. They mixed up their cheers nicely all night, and eventually settled on an "O-liv-o Oooooooh" chant (sung to the tune of the march of the Evil Witch's soldiers from The Wizard of Oz) and were rewarded when Olivo hit a ninth-inning home run just on the right side of the foul pole where the group was gathered.

Hernandez was, in the popular vernacular, 'effectively wild.' With two out in the second inning, second baseman Omar Infante apparently was hit by a pitch. It took the umps about five minutes to discuss it, and Infante eventually took his base after the men in blue had confab with McKeon and Wedge. Infante was the second batter in a row Hernandez hit with a pitch, and the third in the game. Through two innings, Hernandez had walked two batters, hit two more … and had a no-hitter going. But he followed that up with two strikeouts and nine total pitches in the third, and from there, he was rolling.

Of course, the only thing he wanted to talk about after the game was that one hit. Hernandez mentioned that he "really wanted that last at-bat" before receiver Brandon League came in to spell him in the ninth, but that Wedge had told him to expect the hook. No specific approach to his somewhat lumbering swing mechanics, though ? when I asked him what thoughts he brought to the plate, he said, "Just swing!"

The Mariners have played home games on the road before ? they went on a 20-game road jag to end the strike-shortened 1994 season after tiles fell from the Kingdome roof and the place was shut down until repairs could be made. But this was a very different feel, starting when the Marlins and starting pitcher Ricky Nolasco hit the field to the tune of U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name," proving that the person in charge of Safeco's music has an interesting sense of humor. The PA announcer got into it as well, announcing that the home team's weather in Florida was "80 degrees and rainy."

The evening may have been odd, but as far as shortstop Brendan Ryan was concerned, odd was just fine. As he said in the locker room after the win, "We should have all our road games at home!"

They'll get two more chances at the very least.

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