I was shocked when Larry Johnson was released by the Kansas City Chiefs. The reason for my emotion was this man, this football player, was at one time the most dominant running back in the NFL. Larry Johnson was the guy taken 1st overall in fantasy leagues everywhere. Until Monday, LJ, like Shaun Alexander at one point, was without a job.

Take a look now at the present situation. LJ was signed by the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday as an insurance policy for the injured starter Cedric Benson. Who wins on this deal you may ask. As the title of this post so figuratively states, LJ does.

Johnson will receive his $4 million still owed to him by the Chiefs. In addition to this, he will receive $255,290 from the Bengals (this total is equal to the minimum veteran contract amount for the remaining time left in the season).

This season with the Chiefs, Johnson had 358 yards on 132 attempts with 0 touchdowns. Why is this relevant? Well LJ will be playing for a team that is 11th in total rushing yards and whose three running backs have a total of 889 yards on 216 attempts with 6 touchdowns.

Yesterday, I tweeted that DeSean Jackson of the Philadelphia Eagles dropped DeBartolo Sports as his representation and picked up Rosenhaus Sports.  Jackson is on pace to break his impressive stat-line that he posted in his first year in the league.  Last year, he barely missed breaking 1,000 yards receiving, but only caught two touchdowns.  This year, in half as many games, DeSean has double the amount of TDs as last year and looks like he will break the 1,000 yard mark (as long as he remains healthy).

This is not the first young receiver to switch from DeBartolo to Rosenhaus this year.  Back in July, former University of Florida standout, Louis Murphy made the jump.  DeBartolo is known in the industry for its amazing job recruiting prospective clients.  What is the reason that they are having a tough time retaining them?  Two WRs lost to Rosenhaus in the same year cannot be something that they are happy about.

DeSean Jackson probably thought that he should have been picked higher than #49 in the 2008 draft, but why wait so long to drop his agent?  Could he have been shopping this whole time?  Next Question..

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello mentioned that Doty’s ruling on Vick’s bonuses was upheld in large part because the 8th Circuit found the contract’s forfeiture language ambiguous.

The ruling allows the Philadelphia Eagles backup Quarterback to keep more than $16 million in roster bonuses from the Atlanta Falcons.  The court claimed that Vick had already earned the bonus money before he was convicted of federal dog fighting crimes and the money was NOT subject to forfeiture laws.

Vick could certainly use the additional money to help pay off creditors and start over now that he is back on the playing field.  He is set to earn  $1.6 million from the Eagles this year with a team option for the second year at $5.2 million.

Obviously the NFL was not happy about the appellate court’s decision to agree with Judge Doty’s previous ruling.  Doty has handled NFL cases including Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) matters for years.  However, after his first decision in this case, the NFL began accusing the Judge of being biased and attempted to end his oversight of its contract with the players union.

Unfortunately, after the decision that the 8th circuit handed down, it looks like the relationship between the NFL and Judge Doty will continue a bit longer.

I recently wrote a piece on veteran NFL players who were playing poorly during their contract year. News has broke from the Dallas Cowboys that they have signed DeMarcus Ware to a 6-year/$78,000,001 contract with nearly $40 million guaranteed. I will explain the added $1, shortly.

Before signing this big extension, Ware was boasting a 22-tackle, 2-sack season here in 2009. After shaking on a deal with Jerry Jones, he posted 2 tackles, 2 sacks and 1 forced fumble this past Sunday. In a sport where many players go “soft” after getting paid, the Cowboys did a great job of realizing that maybe DeMarcus Ware wasn’t playing well because he wasn’t getting paid enough.  Interesting theory.

Now, on to the $1. It is being reported that Jerry Jones handed Ware a $1 bill with this message scribbled on it: “This is my last offer. Your great. Jerry Jones.”

When asked by the media what he thought of the deal, DeMarcus Ware had this to say:

“I feel like I work really hard and am really deserving of what they’ve given me. All this is behind me now. It’s time to get to work.”

Now that’s a player I want on my team.

Brady Quinn looked ever-so-promising at Notre Dame. He made many believe that he’d be a solid quarterback in the NFL, but after a rough start to the season, he has been benched for former starter Derek Anderson.

The devastation this causes on Quinn is two-fold. For one, he has to deal with the fact that he was benched and secondly, he stands to lose around $11 million in performance bonuses.

In Quinn’s contract, it states that he would have to play 70 percent of Cleveland’s offensive snaps to be able to scoop up two bonuses which are worth $10.95 million total. Quinn’s future in Cleveland is very uncertain.  There has been speculation that he would depart town after he posted his house up for sale.

One thing is for sure: Of the two quarterbacks drafted in the 1st round of the 2007 NFL Draft (Brady Quinn and JaMarcus Russell), neither have proven their worth.

Jay Cutler has agreed to a 2-year/$30 million contract extension with the Chicago Bears; this contract includes $20 million in guaranteed money. Cutler is scheduled to make about $50 million. The possibility of a lockout in 2011 made Cutler’s agent, Bus Cook, more eager to get his client some guaranteed cash.

Cutler was drafted 11th overall in the 2006 NFL Draft. Here is a list of the quarterbacks drafted in the first round of 2006 and what they are getting paid:

• Vince Young – 3rd overall – 6 years/$58 million
• Matt Leinart – 10th overall – 6 years/$50.8 million

The crazy thing about these quarterbacks is that Young and Leinart are both riding the pine pony.

**Side Note: Kyle Orton (Cutler’s replacement in Denver) is scheduled to make $995,000 in 2009

Interestingly, before hiring Drew Rosenhaus, LenDale did not actually have an agent.  The NFLPA lists his agent as Christopher Brantley of ASM Sports, but according to Brad Biggs of the National Football Post, Brantley is not an NFLPA certified advisor.  Thus, had LenDale not picked up Rosenhaus or another NFLPA certified advisor, he would have had to negotiate his next contract all by himself, which is something that most NFL players are not prepared to do (Daunte Culpepper and Ricky Williams are two of the few players who has attempted to negotiate their own deals).

ASM Sports is known for its strong basketball client list that includes Chauncey Billups, Donyell Marshall, Marreese Speights, and dozens of other talented players.  Andy Miller is the popular name behind the company, but most likely you have also heard of VP Justin Zanik.  I cannot find any information regarding the company representing professional football players, which makes me wonder how LenDale connected with Brantley in the first place.

Bosh, who is known to be an avid user of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and has operated his own YouTube channel since 2007, was looking to expand his web presence with his own site. He then learned that someone had beaten him to the punch and had already registered his name, chrisbosh.com. He settled for chris-bosh.com, but chose to pursue legal action to retrieve his domain.

Bosh’s legal counsel, Winston & Strawn LLP, was able to track down the owner of chrisbosh.com, Luis Zavala. Zavala’s company, Hoopology.com was displaying ads using Bosh’s name to generate revenue without Bosh’s knowledge or consent. Zavala also had registered over 800 domain names of NBA players as well as international, college and high school athletes, with the intention of selling them back to the athletes at a premium, a practice known as “cybersquatting.” It was determined that Zavala was in violation of the Federal Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, and as a result of Zavala failing to show in court, Judge Florence-Marie Cooper awarded Bosh the rights to chrisbosh.com as well as $120,000 in damages. As a means to recover some of the damages, Bosh was also awarded all of the domain names registered to Zavala.

Bosh is offering to return all the domain names to their rightful owners, free of charge, through his web media firm: Max Deal Technologies. Max Deal is a web design, marketing and consulting company that “offers web design and technology consulting to clients who demand to stay current with the fast paced world of online communication.”

Ever the entrepreneur, Bosh stated, “I am thrilled that I am able to offer the return of these domain names to a host of other athletes and celebrities whose names were cybersquatted. I will offer the return of the domain names free of charge, but I’d also love the opportunity to show their owners how Max Deal can help.”

Not only does Chris Bosh retrieve your domain name from individuals looking to illegally profit from it, but he returns it to you free of charge and then offers you advice on what to do with your newly rescued domain. However, we have to assume that Max Deal’s advice will not be free of charge.

You can view a list of all 800+ domain names turned over to Chris Bosh here.

Michael Crabtree may have shot himself in the foot when he decided to hold out these past four weeks of the season. The reason for this is that Crabtree pretty much lost all leverage when the 49ers started the season hot. After their winning streak, Eugene Parker knew he had to act quickly and get his client signed. His contract is a rather interesting one and is full of quirky clauses.

Here’s the deal:

• Crabtree signed a 6-year/$32 million contrac.
  • The 6th year is optional based on performance.
  • If a certain amount of stats are reached, the contract will turn to a 5 year/$28 million deal.
  • Discretionary Salary Advance – The 49ers pay Crabtree with the ability to get the cash back (minus the bonuses) in the event of a holdout, suspension, etc.
  • Diva Clause – some cash is tied to this clause which says that if Crabtree does not attend all mandatory functions and does not attend about 90 percent of the Niners’ voluntary events, San Fran can void all escalators tied to the clause.

I like to look at this contract as a “You Should Have Signed Earlier” contract. The reason for this is that many news sources say that the deal offered to Crabtree after the draft did not have any of this special language in it. It was a simple contract.

Sometimes when you roll the dice and take a risk such as the one Crabtree took, you lose. While Crabtree will get paid, he is definitely walking on eggshells in the Bay Area.

When Crabtree eventually signed with the San Francisco 49ers and held a press conference, Parker was nowhere to be found.  Perhaps it is because there is no way to justify such a long holdout when your client accepts an offer that was on the table months ago.

So the Crabtree saga is done…for now.  Time will tell if the 49ers wasted a 1st round pick or not.  But what about this Dez Bryant story?  You know, the Oklahoma State football player who was ruled ineligible for this past weekend’s game (and possibly the entire season) after lying to the NCAA about going to Deion Sanders’ house and training at his facility?  Yeah, he even wrote about it on his Facebook page.

Deion has been training players for the NFL through his company, Prime U.  Pushing cars looks like a big part of the program.

Okay so Dez Bryant gets busted for talking with Deion Sanders…where does Parker come into the picture?  As the Tulsa World reported,

[Deion] Sanders resides in the Dallas area and is associated with sports agent Eugene Parker. As an NFL player, Sanders was Parker’s client. [Dez] Bryant admitted to participating in a training session with Sanders at a Dallas-area gym and to having dinner at Sanders’ home.

Oy vey.  Are we looking too far into the connection, or is there credence to all of this?  Apparently Sanders had a strong hand in Crabtree’s holdout, so perhaps Deion is an intricate part of Parker’s arsenal.  Crabtree, like Bryant also worked out at Prime U.  For now, Parker’s name is not involved in the Dez Bryant issue; however, I am sure that the last thing the agent wants at this point is his name in the media because of any possible connection.  At least Sanders is going to bat for his former agent.

“Eugene has nothing to do with this,” Sanders said in a telephone interview. “Eugene don’t do that. He’s never been in this situation.”