Ravens Ray Lewis to Oakland in exchange for Kerry Collins?

That's the rumor around the message boards. Where it came from is not clear, but it's taken on a life of its own. On face, it's a great trade, with Lewis coming back to play in a defense he's familar with, assuming Art Shell keeps Rex Ryan as defensive coordinator.

We'll see what happens. The question is will it be a straight-up trade, or with draft picks? Who would give up what? It seems a simple trade would make all sides happy. But here's the Ravens rub: does this mean giving up on Kyle Boller, or just having an experienced backup that could push for the starting job. Collins knows and played for Ravens Offensive Coordinator Jim Fassel, so the trade seems logical from a relationship standpoint.

2006 NFL Draft: Will Vince Young Fall to the Oakland Raiders?

This post on the Oakland Raiders Yahoo! Message Board reveals a possible outcome worth monitoring:

Message: 1
Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2006 03:31:33 -0000
From: "Andre"
Subject: Just A Little Note To Ponder

In a recent article by Chris Gargano, someone stated that Vince Young
could fall directly in the Raiders lap whether we win the coin toss
for #6 or not. Knowing that we need youth, talent, and a deep ball
thrower...not to mention a good scrambler in case for some God aweful
Reason Moss, Porter, Curry, Gabriel cannot get open, why in the hell
would you not draft Vince Young. Also there is a possible trade for
Ray Lewis in order to get rid of Collins. Does this sound like the
making of a team you can respect......now this is not freaking fantasy
football....these are facts that could very well develop... and free
agency will be Christmas for the raiders because there are some good
lineman D and O available.....any comments from Intelligent raider
fans who can feel the energy of this team increasing by the numbers?

Blogging Better Than Mainstream Media: Ted Rall's Rant - Check it Out

The Bland Leading The Blind
The nanny press and the cartoon controversy

BY TED RALL

LAS VEGAS--Of course it was a provocation. In September, the editor of a right-wing Danish newspaper decided "to test cartoonists to see if they were self-censoring their work, out of fear of violence from Islamic radicals." Though some declined, 12 artists accepted the editor's invitation to make light of the Prophet Mohammed, and submitted work equating Islam with terrorism and the oppression of women, among other things.

Five months later, editor Fleming Rose has learned that cartoonists have good reason to watch what they draw. Thousands of demonstrators, furious at the publication's violation of an Islamic stricture banning graphic depictions of the Prophet, marched through the streets of Cairo, Karachi, Istanbul, Teheran and Mehtarlam, Afghanistan, where at least five were killed by police. Gunmen took over the European Union office in Gaza. Mobs burned Danish flags and called for a Muslim boycott of Danish goods. Iran withdrew its ambassador from Copenhagen. Danes were ordered to flee Lebanon after mobs burned the Danish consulates in Damascus and Beirut, where they also trashed a Christian neighborhood. The Danish cartoonists, having been threatened with beheading, are presumably catching up on their Salman Rushdie while they weather the storm.

Adding fuel to the fire, said the Times, were "a group of Denmark's fundamentalist Muslim clerics ... [who] took their show on the road" last fall, traveling around the Middle East showing a package that included cartoons that had never actually appeared in any newspaper, "some depicting Mohammed as a pedophile, a pig or engaged in bestiality." Newspapers in France, Germany and elsewhere further fanned the flames by reprinting the Danish drawings.

Being provoked, as I tell myself when I'm sitting next to Sean Hannity, doesn't justify reacting with violence. And as Kuwaiti oil executive Samia al-Duaij pointed out to Time, there are better reasons to torch embassies than over cartoons: "America kills thousands of Muslims, and you lose your head and withdraw ambassadors over a bunch of cartoons printed in a second-rate paper in a Nordic country with a population of five million? That's the true outrage."

As the only syndicated political cartoonist who also writes a syndicated column, my living depends on freedom of the press. I can't decide who's a bigger threat: the deluded Islamists who hope to impose Sharia law on Western democracies, or the right-wing clash-of-civilization crusaders waving the banner of "free speech"--the same folks who call for the censorship and even murder of anti-Bush cartoonists here--as an excuse to join the post-9/11 Muslims-suck media pile-on. Most reasonable people reject both--but neither is as dangerous to liberty as America's self-censoring newspaper editors and broadcast producers.

"CNN has chosen not to show the [Danish Mohammed] cartoons out of respect for Islam," said the news channel.

"We always weigh the value of the journalistic impact against the impact that publication might have as far as insulting or hurting certain groups," said an editor at The San Francisco Chronicle.

"The cartoons didn't meet our long-held standards for not moving offensive content," said the Associated Press.

Bull----.

If these cowards were worried about offending the faithful, they wouldn't cover or quote such Muslim-bashers as Ann Coulter, Christopher Hitchens or George W. Bush. The truth is, our national nanny media is managed by cowards so terrified by the prospect of their offices being firebombed that they wallow in self-censorship.

Precisely because they subvert free speech from within with their oh-so-reasonable odes for "moderation" and against "sensationalism," the gatekeepers of our national nanny media are more dangerous to Western values than distant mullahs and clueless neocons combined. Editors and producers decide not only what's fit to print but also what's not: flag-draped coffins and body bags arriving from Iraq, photographs of Afghan civilians, their bodies reduced to blobs of blood and protoplasm, all purged from our national consciousness. You might think it's news when the vice president tells a senator to "go f--- yourself" on the Senate floor, but you'd be wrong--only tortured roundabout descriptions (like "f---") make newsprint. "This is a family newspaper," any editor will say, arguing for self-censorship--as if kids couldn't fill in those three letters in "f---."

As if kids read the paper.

The nanny media, even more prudish since 9/11, covers our millions of eyes to protect us from our own icky deeds. In Afghanistan in 2001, while covering a war that had officially killed 12 civilians, I watched a colleague from a major television network collate footage of a B-52 bombing indiscriminately obliterating a civilian neighborhood. "If people saw what bombing looks like here on the ground," he observed as body parts and burning houses and screaming children filled the screen, "they would demand an end to it. Which is why this will never air on American television." But other countries don't have our nanny media. Europeans and Arabs see the horror wreaked in our name on their airwaves, assume that we see the same imagery and hate us for not giving a damn. America's self-censors make anti-Americanism worse.

Ugly truths come out one way or the other. While the Muslim world was raging over the Danish Mohammed cartoons, Washington Post cartoonist Tom Toles received a chilling letter from the Joints Chief of Staff in reaction to his single-panel rendition of a quadriplegic veteran; if not for the nanny media's slavish refusal to run photos of the real thing, would that abstract image have shocked anyone? While we're at it, using prose to describe graphic images--as editors and anchormen are doing about the Mohammed imagery--makes as much sense as talking about the Rodney King police brutality video. "[Describing the cartoons without showing them] seems a reasonable choice," editorialized The New York Times, a paper whose readers' right to know apparently includes classified surveillance programs--but not cartoons.

Toles "crossed the line" from appropriate commentary into outright tastelessness, complained the Joint Chiefs. Similarly, many Muslims say the 12 Danish cartoonists "crossed the line" when they indulged in blasphemy of one of the world's major religions. U.S. State Department spokesman and honorary mullah Sean McCormack helpfully tells us where The Line is drawn: "Anti-Muslim images are as unacceptable as anti-Semitic images," he said. But who can distinguish "anti-Muslim images" from "acceptable" satire? Taste is subjective. Right-wing Time columnist Andrew Sullivan, who has repeatedly called for censoring my work because it's critical of Bush, calls the Danish cartoons "not arbitrarily offensive" and thus acceptable free speech. Lefties, on the other hand, rallied to get Rush Limbaugh fired from his gig as a football commentator.

Hypocrisy abounds: Everyone supports the free speech they agree with.

Which is why, in a nation with a truly free media, there is no line. To hell with the nanny media. Free speech is like a Ferrari: What good is it if you don't use it or if you barely use it, only driving it in town, in stop-and-go traffic? It's useless until you can head out to the Arizona desert and push it past 150 mph. Short of libel, slander and impersonation, anything goes--that is, if you believe in the First Amendment.

What if millions of people take offense? What if some of them turn violent, even murderous? So what? No one can make you angry. You decide whether or not to become angry. If journalistic gatekeepers worry about the mere possibility of prompting outrage, they'll validate mob rule and undermine our right to a free press, one that covers the controversial along with the bland.

While deciding what goes into the paper and the evening news, good journalists ought to be guided by only one consideration: Is it news? If the answer is yes, send it out. Even if it's tasteless as all f---.

Postscript: A European Muslim Web site has posted a cartoon depicting Anne Frank in bed with Adolf Hitler. "If it is the time to break taboos and cross all the red lines," the site explains, "we certainly do not want to fall behind." It's an idiotic cartoon. Breaking taboos, on the other hand, is something our nanny media ought to try.

New York Names Street After Peter Jennings

I just saw it on CNN's "Live From." W. 66th Street is now called "Peter Jennings Way." What a way to honor one of the best television anchors in American history.

It Could Be That, With AJ Freeley, The Chargers Feel They Can Get Along Without Brees

I think it was a calculated action, but in retrospect a very smart one by San Diego Chargers AJ Smith: signing quarterback AJ Freeley to a contract that runs through 2007.

I think this move was done to place San Diego in a perfect quarterback bargaining position they feel they can't lose in. With Brees, Phil Rivers, and AJ Freeley in place, the Bolts have two QBs' that other teams would want to deal for and one that's a proven backup.

And that's the other side of the problem.

Too much of this dealing and wheeling could place the Chargers with a team lacking in the righ chemistry to win a championship, let alone get into the playoffs.

Last year, the Chargers were one step from the postseason and arguably the best team not to make it. AJ Smith's actions could keep them in a position where they're on the outside looking in for a long time.

The best move was to place a franchise tag on Brees and go from there. It would have been a great move to insure the team's future chemistry. But it's too late now; they could lose Brees and Rivers and be stuck with Freeley.

Now Oceanside? San Diego Chargers Still Without A New Stadium Under Construction

After years, plans, environmental impact reports, and millions of dollars, the San Diego Chargers are still without a new stadium, let alone one under construction.

The latest proposal is to build a new stadium in suburban Oceanside. The San Diego Times Union report is below.

Councilmember suggests studying golf course as football stadium site

By Ronald W. Powell
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
February 21, 2006

The Chargers want a new stadium, and Oceanside Councilwoman Esther Sanchez believes Oceanside may have a solution.
Sanchez said the city-owned Center City Golf Course, which is commonly called “goat hill” because it is so hilly, should be considered.

She is asking the Oceanside City Council tomorrow to consider holding a workshop on the future of the 71.7-acre golf course and wants a Chargers stadium to be among the options.

“It would be a great honor to have the Chargers,” Sanchez said yesterday.

The site has an adjoining four acres of city-owned property, providing a potential development footprint of more than 75 acres. But Sanchez, who wants the workshop scheduled within 60 days, said she isn't sure the site is big enough to accommodate a stadium and parking.

Why this site might work
The Oceanside-owned Center City Golf Course has several features that Chargers officials have said they would want for a new football stadium.

A minimum of 20 to 25 acres would be needed for a stadium and parking. The golf course is 71.7 acres, with four adjoining city-owned acres.

Access to freeways and mass transit would be needed. The golf course is east of Interstate 5, with highways 76 and 78 feeding into it. The Coaster train line and the Sprinter train project, which is under construction between Oceanside and Escondido, could serve the stadium.

Some council colleagues burst out laughing when told of the idea, citing everything from traffic congestion to a shortage of parkland to environmental issues to the adverse effect on nearby neighborhoods as reasons why a stadium is not the right fit.

“I'm ready to discuss anything,” said Oceanside Councilman Rocky Chavez. “But this seems to me to be a bridge too far.”

Last month, the Chargers abandoned an effort to put a stadium proposal on the November ballot for San Diego voters. The plan would have called for the team to build a stadium at the 166-acre Qualcomm Stadium site and demolish the existing stadium.

In exchange, the Chargers wanted the city to deed over 60 acres at Qualcomm for free so the team and a development partner could build housing, a hotel, offices and retail outlets to pay for the stadium and other improvements.

The Chargers can begin talks with other cities Jan. 1 about relocating. San Diego Councilman Jim Madaffer has asked that the council vote to amend the Chargers' lease before then so the team can talk with other cities in the county about stadium possibilities. Madaffer said the amendment would increase the chances that the team would stay in the county.

But that plan is on hold until San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders and a city negotiating group has an opportunity to try to work out a solution with Chargers executives.

Sanders' spokesman, Fred Sainz, said yesterday that the idea of a stadium in Oceanside is “too speculative and premature” to comment on. He said the city's Chargers negotiators met last Thursday and are planning to meet soon with team executives, although a meeting has not been scheduled.

Mark Fabiani, who is the Chargers' lawyer on stadium issues, said he could not comment on the Oceanside site because of restrictions in the team's lease with the city.

Fabiani said he first heard about the golf course at a Feb. 8 breakfast in the University Towne Centre area.

He was speaking about the stadium issue to an audience mostly of real estate brokers. During the question-and-answer period, Jane McVey, Oceanside's director of development and redevelopment, asked Fabiani if he knew about the golf course site. Fabiani said he told her he could not discuss the property and sent a letter to her that day further explaining why the team cannot talk with cities outside of San Diego.

McVey said in an interview that she was not talking to Fabiani at the behest of the City Council and just wanted him to be aware of the site.

The golf course is east of Interstate 5 at 1 Country Club Lane. It is bounded by homes on the north and east, a shopping center to the south and nonprofit youth services organizations on the west.

Sports marketing experts say a stadium in the North County could draw football fans from Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, in addition to the team's San Diego base.

It would meet some requirements Fabiani previously outlined for a stadium site because it is more than 25 acres, is owned by the city and has freeway access, as well as the potential for rail access.

But other requirements, including accommodating neighbors and financing for a stadium that could cost $450 million or more, are question marks.

An Oceanside ordinance also requires that a change in use of parkland, including the city's golf courses, must be approved by voters.

Oceanside Councilwoman Shari Mackin chuckled when told about the idea. Then she said the city has a serious shortage of parkland that development of the golf course would worsen.

“This has come out of left field. I just about fell out of my chair,” Mackin said. “I'm a big Chargers fan, but I don't know about putting a stadium in that little corner behind the grocery store.”

The golf course is under lease to Judy Keehn until the end of 2012. She said her late husband, Ludwig Keehn, obtained the lease in 1982 with the idea of providing an affordable place for residents to play.

The 18-hole course is known for its two-for-one deals that cost golfers $38.50 during the week and $43.50 on weekends – rates far below most other courses in the region.

Keehn said she had planned to operate the course until the lease expires but would consider a buy-out.

“If a deal came up, I'd look at it,” she said.

Tampa Bay Bucs' Defense Gets Quality Control Coach

TAMPA TRIBUNE - The Bucs took another step toward completing their staff by hiring North Dakota State defensive coordinator Casey Bradley as a quality-control coach for the NFL's top-rated defense. Bradley, a former free safety and punter for the Bisons, has been with North Dakota State's coaching staff for the past nine seasons.

In 2005, the Bisons led the Great West Football Conference in scoring defense, pass defense and total defense while using a variation of the Cover 2 scheme the Bucs have utilized so successfully in the past decade under Monte Kiffin.

Tampa Bay is expected to announce its revamped coaching staff this week at the scouting combine in Indianapolis.

Ira Kaufman