Bears release veteran receiver Muhsin Muhammad
Bears release veteran receiver Muhsin Muhammad
By ANDREW SELIGMAN, AP Sports Writer
February 18, 2008
AP - Feb 18, 7:02 pm EST
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CHICAGO (AP) -- The Chicago Bears released former Pro Bowl wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad on Monday, cutting the veteran after three seasons.
Chicago also gave defensive end Alex Brown a two-year contract extension, declined a $5.2 million option on defensive tackle Darwin Walker, and released veteran offensive tackle Fred Miller.
"Anytime a guy of Moose's stature is released, it's a surprise," said agent Joel Segal, who represents both Muhammad and Brown. "It's good timing for Moose because it's on the cusp of free agency. It gives him time to sign with another team."
He called Brown's deal a "win-win for both sides."
Muhammad spent his first nine seasons with the Carolina Panthers and made two Pro Bowls, but was released in February 2005 after setting career highs with 1,405 yards receiving and 16 touchdowns. He immediately signed a six-year contract with the Bears, but his numbers dropped dramatically in Chicago.
He caught 40 passes for 570 yards and three touchdowns as the Bears went 7-9 last season, and given his age -- he turns 35 in May -- the move wasn't shocking. The timing was a bit curious, though, given that leading receiver Bernard Berrian is considered one of the top free agents.
Segal said there has been no contact with other teams, but "I'm sure my phone will start ringing tonight."
Muhammad's best season with the Bears was in 2006, when had 863 yards and five touchdowns while helping the Bears reach the Super Bowl. That was an improvement over his first season in Chicago (750 yards and four touchdowns), but nothing like his final year with the Panthers. In 12 seasons, Muhammad has 742 receptions for 9,934 yards and 56 touchdowns.
Brown, who had two years left on his contract, wasn't thrilled when the coaches handed Mark Anderson the starting job at right defensive end in training camp. Brown wound up with 58 tackles and 4 1/2 sacks last season after 71 and seven in 2006. Anderson struggled against the run, and injuries and poor execution left a once-dominant defense vulnerable.
The Bears believed they landed a solid replacement for Tank Johnson when they acquired Walker from the Buffalo Bills. He signed a five-year, $25-million contract two days after the trade, but knee and elbow problems limited him to 33 tackles and one sack in 11 games.
Agent Albert Irby said the injuries were "just nagging types of things" and his client is fine.
"It's the Bears' choice," he said. "It's the way the business goes. That's their decision."
Miller started 46 games in three seasons with the Bears and has started 160 of his last 161 overall. A 12-year veteran, he started in Super Bowls with Chicago and the St. Louis Rams.
The Atlanta Falcons released four-time Pro Bowl tight end Alge Crumpler and six other players Friday in the first step of a major rebuilding job in the post-Michael Vick era.
The Falcons also cut quarterback Byron Leftwich, defensive tackle Rod Coleman, offensive tackle Wayne Gandy, cornerback Lewis Sanders, wide receiver Jamin Elliott and linebacker Marcus Wilkins.
"This is a difficult day for the entire organization," said Thomas Dimitroff, the Falcons' new general manager. "A number of these players have contributed to this organization on and off the field at a high level, and we greatly appreciate their efforts."
None contributed more than Crumpler, one of the team's most respected players and a leader in the locker room. He twice led the Falcons in receptions and had a streak of four straight Pro Bowl appearances from 2003-06.
But Crumpler was plagued by knee problems this past season and dropped off to 44 receptions. Also, he counted $5.1 million against the salary cap for 2008, money the Falcons felt could be better spent elsewhere.
"These decisions weren't easy, but we felt they were necessary to build a team in the long-term best interest of the Falcons and its fans," Dimitroff said.
The Falcons also cut Coleman, who played sparingly in 2007 after injuring himself on a personal watercraft during the last offseason. Before that, he had been one of the NFL's most dominating interior linemen, making the Pro Bowl in 2005.
"As a football coach it is never easy to cut any player, especially veteran players who have been valuable members of the organization," said new coach Mike Smith, who was hired last month.
Leftwich was another player slowed by injuries. Cut by Jacksonville late in training camp, he signed with the Falcons after missing the first two weeks of the regular season. He was soon anointed the starter by then-coach Bobby Petrino, but played in only three games because of a perennially ailing ankle and other problems.
The 37-year-old Gandy started all 16 games for the Falcons in 2006, but made it through only five weeks last season before going down with a knee injury, the first major health issue of his career.
Sanders started six games in his only season with the Falcons, but was supplanted by rookie Chris Houston. Wilkins and Elliott were used sparingly.
The Falcons are retooling their roster after going 4-12 in 2007, a tumultuous season marred by the loss of Vick. The team's most prominent player pleaded guilty to federal dogfighting charges and received a prison sentence of nearly two years.
Petrino bolted for Arkansas with three games left in his debut season, and owner Arthur Blank further shook things up by taking away the GM duties from Rich McKay, who remains as team president.
The loss of Vick had severe implications on Atlanta's salary cap, especially when a federal judge ruled this month the team couldn't recover $16.5 million in bonuses. The NFL is appealing that decision.
From all indications, the shake-up isn't done. Veterans such as Warrick Dunn and Lawyer Milloy could become victims of the cap, though they weren't included in the original round of cuts.
Dimitroff wants to provide flexibility in the free-agent market, which begins Feb. 29.
Keyshawn Johnson has a job that most of his former NFL peers envy. The veteran wideout made a smooth segue from the football field to the broadcast booth, and now he gets paid a hefty salary to talk about the game on ESPN.
There's just one catch: After spending a season watching many receivers he believes aren't as good as he was, Johnson is strongly considering a comeback.
I like challenges," Johnson told Yahoo! Sports on Monday. "The challenge of helping to turn a team around, to help get it to the next level, that gets my competitive fires burning. I have the itch, and right now I'm trying to decide how strong that itch is."
Whether those feelings will compel Johnson, who'll turn 36 in July, to return to the league will likely depend on the way in which potential employers perceive his current value. A three-time Pro Bowl selection with 10,571 career receiving yards, Johnson says he'll decide in the next few days whether to pursue a return to the playing field.
After catching 70 passes for 815 yards in 2006 with the Carolina Panthers, his fourth team in 11 NFL seasons, Johnson was released and attracted interest from several suitors, most notably the Tennessee Titans. In May, he turned down a two-year contract offer worth nearly $8 million from the Titans, instead signing a lucrative, four-year deal with ESPN.
Though Johnson declined to get into monetary specifics Monday, it is not likely that his asking price has come down. Yet the amount of cash he is likely to seek from an NFL team might not be realistic for someone in his situation.
"We wouldn't pay him that much," says Dallas Cowboys president Stephen Jones, who has maintained a good relationship with Johnson since he was released by the Cowboys following the 2005 season. "We have a player who is kind of like him in Patrick Crayton, and age is an issue. Plus, he's been out of football for a year, and it's not like (he got faster). Mother Nature doesn't work that way."
Another person who has final say over his team's roster expressed a similar sentiment, saying, "He's a very good player, but if anything, his value has gone down a little. He wasn't super fast to begin with, now he has been away for a year."
Johnson has been working out regularly since January and scoffs at the notion that his skills have diminished. It's true that many NFL talent evaluators cite Johnson's blocking ability, willingness to battle defenders on the backside during running plays and ability to make the tough catches on third down and in the red zone as assets that transcend his statistical value. He believes that he would also provide leadership and the ability to mentor young receivers.
When he talks about "helping to turn a team around," it's hard not to think about the Miami Dolphins. New Dolphins vice president of football operations Bill Parcells has remained close with Johnson, whom he coached in Dallas and New York (with the Jets, who made Johnson the No. 1 overall pick out of USC in 1996), and the two spent last season together appearing on ESPN's Sunday and Monday night pregame studio shows. The two men speak frequently, though Johnson says they have not discussed his possible signing with the Dolphins in anything but an abstract sense.
Parcells, through a Dolphins spokesman, declined to comment on Johnson's potential return.
Other potential suitors could include the Titans and Oakland Raiders, each of whom expressed serious interest in Johnson last spring; the Redskins, who under owner Daniel Snyder have a history of shelling out cash for big-name veterans; the Buccaneers, who inquired about signing Johnson to a bargain-basement deal toward the end of the '07 regular season; and the Patriots, who reportedly will pass on picking up a $6 million option bonus for wideout Donte' Stallworth (thus making him a free agent). Johnson is close with Patriots coach Bill Belichick, though it is unlikely New England would covet Johnson at the numbers he believes he's worth.
The Bucs scenario is especially intriguing, given that Johnson was deactivated (and essentially banished) for the final six games of the '03 regular season after he feuded with coach Jon Gruden, for whom he won a Super Bowl the previous year. Yet Johnson, traded by Tampa Bay to the Cowboys for Joey Galloway in March '04, gave serious consideration to the Bucs' offer last December and says he absolutely is not averse to playing for Gruden again.
As athletes-turned-commentators go, Johnson has a pretty sweet situation with ESPN and its parent company, Disney. Like Tiki Barber's deal with NBC, which includes a part-time role for the ex-New York Giants halfback on the "The Today Show," Johnson's pact includes potential for crossover appearances on programs like ABC's "Dancing With Stars." On Monday he filled in for Jim Rome as a guest host on ESPN's "Rome is Burning."
A source familiar with Johnson's four-year ESPN contract and the pact Barber signed with NBC says Johnson's deal is nearly a third higher in total value. Another industry source says Barber is paid in the neighborhood of $2 million per season.
Delhomme patiently follows recipe for rehab
By Dennis Dillon - SportingNews
Like most Cajuns, Jake Delhomme prefers rice that is cooked and mixed in with red beans to a bucket full of the raw grains. Especially when he has to reach down deep into the bucket, make a fist and hold it for 30 seconds at a time.
That's just one activity--a grueling, forearm-burning one, for sure--the Panthers quarterback has performed during his rehab from elbow surgery that forced him to miss the final 13 games of the 2007 season. To rebuild the strength in his right (throwing) arm, Delhomme also has squeezed different types of balls, stretched his muscles with rubber exercise bands and lifted weights. And he is just completing his second week of throwing a Nerf football short distances.
Which brings us to the good news: Delhomme is experiencing no discomfort and expects to be ready when the Panthers open training camp in late July.
"I would be very disappointed if I was not," he says. "I'm so excited by the way the arm feels. It's different. I know it's healthy."
That's a far cry from what Delhomme had suspected since the 2005 season. He experienced just enough pain that he knew something was wrong. It didn't prevent him from playing, but it hindered him from doing extra work after practices, like working one-on-one with a receiver on specific routes.
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The breaking point came last September 23, late in the third quarter of a game in Atlanta. Delhomme threw a checkdown pass to fullback Brad Hoover "and something went." He suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament--the primary elbow stabilizer.
On October 18, Delhomme underwent Tommy John surgery. Doctors reconstructed the torn ligament by grafting a piece from his left hamstring. They also removed a bone spur from his elbow and repaired a muscle.
Delhomme spent the rest of the season on injured reserve and watched a promising season fall apart. After going into their bye week with a 4-2 record, the Panthers lost their next five games and limped to the finish line with a 7-9 record.
Although defensive end Julius Peppers had the poorest season of his NFL career and linebacker Dan Morgan missed most of the season with a torn Achilles' tendon, much of Carolina's collapse could be traced to its revolving door at quarterback. Delhomme's injury set off a ripple effect at the position as three players--David Carr, 44-year-old Vinny Testaverde (who came out of retirement) and undrafted rookie Matt Moore--shared starting duties for the remainder of the season because of injuries or ineffectiveness.
"The hardest position to replace in the NFL is quarterback," says Delhomme, "and we just had injuries and never had stability there. It was just a tough, long year for us."
It was frustratingly long for Delhomme, who had been Carolina's quarterback since 2003--he started 70 of 74 games, including playoffs--and helped lead the Panthers to Super Bowl 38 after that season. Although he was around his teammates after his surgery and even traveled with them to some away games, he largely felt incompetent. "It's just not the same when you're not suiting up on Sunday and playing and trying to help your team," he says.
Visions of returning to his role and making the Panthers playoff contenders again is what has driven Delhomme through each step of his rehab. And there still is a lot to be done.
He'll continue throwing the Nerf ball to head athletic trainer Ryan Vermillion--20 to 25 times per day at a distance of 10 to 12 yards--for another two or three weeks. Then he'll graduate to using a real football, starting off at short intervals and gradually moving up.
What Delhomme has to guard against now is trying to do too much too soon. A setback in his progress at this point would be worse than throwing an interception in the Super Bowl.
"Every quarterback who comes off an injury says, 'I'm throwing the best I ever have' and whatnot," he says. "But I feel like I haven't felt in a few years. I really think I could do more. I really think I could throw farther. But we've just got to do whatever the trainer says."
Even when he tells Delhomme to go stick his arm in a bucket of rice.
Bears release veteran receiver Muhsin Muhammad
By ANDREW SELIGMAN, AP Sports Writer
February 18, 2008
AP - Feb 18, 7:02 pm EST
More Photos
CHICAGO (AP) -- The Chicago Bears released former Pro Bowl wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad on Monday, cutting the veteran after three seasons.
Chicago also gave defensive end Alex Brown a two-year contract extension, declined a $5.2 million option on defensive tackle Darwin Walker, and released veteran offensive tackle Fred Miller.
"Anytime a guy of Moose's stature is released, it's a surprise," said agent Joel Segal, who represents both Muhammad and Brown. "It's good timing for Moose because it's on the cusp of free agency. It gives him time to sign with another team."
He called Brown's deal a "win-win for both sides."
Muhammad spent his first nine seasons with the Carolina Panthers and made two Pro Bowls, but was released in February 2005 after setting career highs with 1,405 yards receiving and 16 touchdowns. He immediately signed a six-year contract with the Bears, but his numbers dropped dramatically in Chicago.
He caught 40 passes for 570 yards and three touchdowns as the Bears went 7-9 last season, and given his age -- he turns 35 in May -- the move wasn't shocking. The timing was a bit curious, though, given that leading receiver Bernard Berrian is considered one of the top free agents.
Segal said there has been no contact with other teams, but "I'm sure my phone will start ringing tonight."
Muhammad's best season with the Bears was in 2006, when had 863 yards and five touchdowns while helping the Bears reach the Super Bowl. That was an improvement over his first season in Chicago (750 yards and four touchdowns), but nothing like his final year with the Panthers. In 12 seasons, Muhammad has 742 receptions for 9,934 yards and 56 touchdowns.
Brown, who had two years left on his contract, wasn't thrilled when the coaches handed Mark Anderson the starting job at right defensive end in training camp. Brown wound up with 58 tackles and 4 1/2 sacks last season after 71 and seven in 2006. Anderson struggled against the run, and injuries and poor execution left a once-dominant defense vulnerable.
The Bears believed they landed a solid replacement for Tank Johnson when they acquired Walker from the Buffalo Bills. He signed a five-year, $25-million contract two days after the trade, but knee and elbow problems limited him to 33 tackles and one sack in 11 games.
Agent Albert Irby said the injuries were "just nagging types of things" and his client is fine.
"It's the Bears' choice," he said. "It's the way the business goes. That's their decision."
Miller started 46 games in three seasons with the Bears and has started 160 of his last 161 overall. A 12-year veteran, he started in Super Bowls with Chicago and the St. Louis Rams.
The Atlanta Falcons released four-time Pro Bowl tight end Alge Crumpler and six other players Friday in the first step of a major rebuilding job in the post-Michael Vick era.
The Falcons also cut quarterback Byron Leftwich, defensive tackle Rod Coleman, offensive tackle Wayne Gandy, cornerback Lewis Sanders, wide receiver Jamin Elliott and linebacker Marcus Wilkins.
"This is a difficult day for the entire organization," said Thomas Dimitroff, the Falcons' new general manager. "A number of these players have contributed to this organization on and off the field at a high level, and we greatly appreciate their efforts."
None contributed more than Crumpler, one of the team's most respected players and a leader in the locker room. He twice led the Falcons in receptions and had a streak of four straight Pro Bowl appearances from 2003-06.
But Crumpler was plagued by knee problems this past season and dropped off to 44 receptions. Also, he counted $5.1 million against the salary cap for 2008, money the Falcons felt could be better spent elsewhere.
"These decisions weren't easy, but we felt they were necessary to build a team in the long-term best interest of the Falcons and its fans," Dimitroff said.
The Falcons also cut Coleman, who played sparingly in 2007 after injuring himself on a personal watercraft during the last offseason. Before that, he had been one of the NFL's most dominating interior linemen, making the Pro Bowl in 2005.
"As a football coach it is never easy to cut any player, especially veteran players who have been valuable members of the organization," said new coach Mike Smith, who was hired last month.
Leftwich was another player slowed by injuries. Cut by Jacksonville late in training camp, he signed with the Falcons after missing the first two weeks of the regular season. He was soon anointed the starter by then-coach Bobby Petrino, but played in only three games because of a perennially ailing ankle and other problems.
The 37-year-old Gandy started all 16 games for the Falcons in 2006, but made it through only five weeks last season before going down with a knee injury, the first major health issue of his career.
Sanders started six games in his only season with the Falcons, but was supplanted by rookie Chris Houston. Wilkins and Elliott were used sparingly.
The Falcons are retooling their roster after going 4-12 in 2007, a tumultuous season marred by the loss of Vick. The team's most prominent player pleaded guilty to federal dogfighting charges and received a prison sentence of nearly two years.
Petrino bolted for Arkansas with three games left in his debut season, and owner Arthur Blank further shook things up by taking away the GM duties from Rich McKay, who remains as team president.
The loss of Vick had severe implications on Atlanta's salary cap, especially when a federal judge ruled this month the team couldn't recover $16.5 million in bonuses. The NFL is appealing that decision.
From all indications, the shake-up isn't done. Veterans such as Warrick Dunn and Lawyer Milloy could become victims of the cap, though they weren't included in the original round of cuts.
Dimitroff wants to provide flexibility in the free-agent market, which begins Feb. 29.
Keyshawn Johnson has a job that most of his former NFL peers envy. The veteran wideout made a smooth segue from the football field to the broadcast booth, and now he gets paid a hefty salary to talk about the game on ESPN.
There's just one catch: After spending a season watching many receivers he believes aren't as good as he was, Johnson is strongly considering a comeback.
I like challenges," Johnson told Yahoo! Sports on Monday. "The challenge of helping to turn a team around, to help get it to the next level, that gets my competitive fires burning. I have the itch, and right now I'm trying to decide how strong that itch is."
Whether those feelings will compel Johnson, who'll turn 36 in July, to return to the league will likely depend on the way in which potential employers perceive his current value. A three-time Pro Bowl selection with 10,571 career receiving yards, Johnson says he'll decide in the next few days whether to pursue a return to the playing field.
After catching 70 passes for 815 yards in 2006 with the Carolina Panthers, his fourth team in 11 NFL seasons, Johnson was released and attracted interest from several suitors, most notably the Tennessee Titans. In May, he turned down a two-year contract offer worth nearly $8 million from the Titans, instead signing a lucrative, four-year deal with ESPN.
Though Johnson declined to get into monetary specifics Monday, it is not likely that his asking price has come down. Yet the amount of cash he is likely to seek from an NFL team might not be realistic for someone in his situation.
"We wouldn't pay him that much," says Dallas Cowboys president Stephen Jones, who has maintained a good relationship with Johnson since he was released by the Cowboys following the 2005 season. "We have a player who is kind of like him in Patrick Crayton, and age is an issue. Plus, he's been out of football for a year, and it's not like (he got faster). Mother Nature doesn't work that way."
Another person who has final say over his team's roster expressed a similar sentiment, saying, "He's a very good player, but if anything, his value has gone down a little. He wasn't super fast to begin with, now he has been away for a year."
Johnson has been working out regularly since January and scoffs at the notion that his skills have diminished. It's true that many NFL talent evaluators cite Johnson's blocking ability, willingness to battle defenders on the backside during running plays and ability to make the tough catches on third down and in the red zone as assets that transcend his statistical value. He believes that he would also provide leadership and the ability to mentor young receivers.
When he talks about "helping to turn a team around," it's hard not to think about the Miami Dolphins. New Dolphins vice president of football operations Bill Parcells has remained close with Johnson, whom he coached in Dallas and New York (with the Jets, who made Johnson the No. 1 overall pick out of USC in 1996), and the two spent last season together appearing on ESPN's Sunday and Monday night pregame studio shows. The two men speak frequently, though Johnson says they have not discussed his possible signing with the Dolphins in anything but an abstract sense.
Parcells, through a Dolphins spokesman, declined to comment on Johnson's potential return.
Other potential suitors could include the Titans and Oakland Raiders, each of whom expressed serious interest in Johnson last spring; the Redskins, who under owner Daniel Snyder have a history of shelling out cash for big-name veterans; the Buccaneers, who inquired about signing Johnson to a bargain-basement deal toward the end of the '07 regular season; and the Patriots, who reportedly will pass on picking up a $6 million option bonus for wideout Donte' Stallworth (thus making him a free agent). Johnson is close with Patriots coach Bill Belichick, though it is unlikely New England would covet Johnson at the numbers he believes he's worth.
The Bucs scenario is especially intriguing, given that Johnson was deactivated (and essentially banished) for the final six games of the '03 regular season after he feuded with coach Jon Gruden, for whom he won a Super Bowl the previous year. Yet Johnson, traded by Tampa Bay to the Cowboys for Joey Galloway in March '04, gave serious consideration to the Bucs' offer last December and says he absolutely is not averse to playing for Gruden again.
As athletes-turned-commentators go, Johnson has a pretty sweet situation with ESPN and its parent company, Disney. Like Tiki Barber's deal with NBC, which includes a part-time role for the ex-New York Giants halfback on the "The Today Show," Johnson's pact includes potential for crossover appearances on programs like ABC's "Dancing With Stars." On Monday he filled in for Jim Rome as a guest host on ESPN's "Rome is Burning."
A source familiar with Johnson's four-year ESPN contract and the pact Barber signed with NBC says Johnson's deal is nearly a third higher in total value. Another industry source says Barber is paid in the neighborhood of $2 million per season.
Delhomme patiently follows recipe for rehab
By Dennis Dillon - SportingNews
Like most Cajuns, Jake Delhomme prefers rice that is cooked and mixed in with red beans to a bucket full of the raw grains. Especially when he has to reach down deep into the bucket, make a fist and hold it for 30 seconds at a time.
That's just one activity--a grueling, forearm-burning one, for sure--the Panthers quarterback has performed during his rehab from elbow surgery that forced him to miss the final 13 games of the 2007 season. To rebuild the strength in his right (throwing) arm, Delhomme also has squeezed different types of balls, stretched his muscles with rubber exercise bands and lifted weights. And he is just completing his second week of throwing a Nerf football short distances.
Which brings us to the good news: Delhomme is experiencing no discomfort and expects to be ready when the Panthers open training camp in late July.
"I would be very disappointed if I was not," he says. "I'm so excited by the way the arm feels. It's different. I know it's healthy."
That's a far cry from what Delhomme had suspected since the 2005 season. He experienced just enough pain that he knew something was wrong. It didn't prevent him from playing, but it hindered him from doing extra work after practices, like working one-on-one with a receiver on specific routes.
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The breaking point came last September 23, late in the third quarter of a game in Atlanta. Delhomme threw a checkdown pass to fullback Brad Hoover "and something went." He suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament--the primary elbow stabilizer.
On October 18, Delhomme underwent Tommy John surgery. Doctors reconstructed the torn ligament by grafting a piece from his left hamstring. They also removed a bone spur from his elbow and repaired a muscle.
Delhomme spent the rest of the season on injured reserve and watched a promising season fall apart. After going into their bye week with a 4-2 record, the Panthers lost their next five games and limped to the finish line with a 7-9 record.
Although defensive end Julius Peppers had the poorest season of his NFL career and linebacker Dan Morgan missed most of the season with a torn Achilles' tendon, much of Carolina's collapse could be traced to its revolving door at quarterback. Delhomme's injury set off a ripple effect at the position as three players--David Carr, 44-year-old Vinny Testaverde (who came out of retirement) and undrafted rookie Matt Moore--shared starting duties for the remainder of the season because of injuries or ineffectiveness.
"The hardest position to replace in the NFL is quarterback," says Delhomme, "and we just had injuries and never had stability there. It was just a tough, long year for us."
It was frustratingly long for Delhomme, who had been Carolina's quarterback since 2003--he started 70 of 74 games, including playoffs--and helped lead the Panthers to Super Bowl 38 after that season. Although he was around his teammates after his surgery and even traveled with them to some away games, he largely felt incompetent. "It's just not the same when you're not suiting up on Sunday and playing and trying to help your team," he says.
Visions of returning to his role and making the Panthers playoff contenders again is what has driven Delhomme through each step of his rehab. And there still is a lot to be done.
He'll continue throwing the Nerf ball to head athletic trainer Ryan Vermillion--20 to 25 times per day at a distance of 10 to 12 yards--for another two or three weeks. Then he'll graduate to using a real football, starting off at short intervals and gradually moving up.
What Delhomme has to guard against now is trying to do too much too soon. A setback in his progress at this point would be worse than throwing an interception in the Super Bowl.
"Every quarterback who comes off an injury says, 'I'm throwing the best I ever have' and whatnot," he says. "But I feel like I haven't felt in a few years. I really think I could do more. I really think I could throw farther. But we've just got to do whatever the trainer says."
Even when he tells Delhomme to go stick his arm in a bucket of rice.
