Eagles in High Sky

If all what happened during the offseason are still not enough to convince you that Brett Favre will return to play his 20th NFL season in Minnesota Vikings jersey, this last news report will at least make you believe that the Vikings do have good reason to wait for Favre’s decision.

The latest report said that Vikings head coach Brad Childress believed Favre to be able to get ready even after missing the whole training camp. Childress told reporters that Favre would need only a couple of weeks to prepare for the upcoming regular season, so missing training camp won’t affect his performance and the team’s plan to continue using him as the starting quarterback. Besides, Childress released that backup quarterback Tarvaris Jackson would most likely become the starter once Favre changes his mind to retire for real-the coach said the team plans to have Jackson take most of the snaps with the first-string offense before the starter wears back his No.4 Brett Favre jersey.

Childress’ confidence mostly came from Favre’s performance in 2009 season, before which Favre did not practice much with his new teammates in training camp. With only roughly one month’s preparation, the 40-year-old man still managed to lead the Vikings to NFC championship team.

Former Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner must have great patience to explain again and again that he has no intention to follow Brett Favre. The retired quarterback could regret that he did not delay his retirement until Favre announces his final decision on whether to wear back his Vikings jersey or not.

“I’m completely at peace,” Warner told KGME-AM on Friday. “The itch has not come back one bit. I’ve loved my time in the NFL, and I will always say that. It did so much for me and my family, and it was a dream of mine to play at that level and to accomplish some of the things that I did. But I knew it was the right time.”

That’s the difference between Warner and the other quarterback in Brett Favre jersey. Warner has run out of his passion in football, while Favre still feels like winning more games and titles. That could also where Warner is better than Favre as the former knows where to stop while the latter is confused all by himself and always needs someone or something to help him make decision.

According to recent reports, the Detroit Lions could be making effort to lure unsigned Kansas City Chiefs restricted free agent Jarrad Page, who has not signed the tender offer from the Chiefs, perhaps for not receiving a satisfying new contract. The Lions could be inspired b y defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham to get the idea of trading for Page.

Cunningham was working with the Chiefs when Page was drafted by the team in 2006 as a seventh-round draft pick. Page has not been happy with playing for the Chiefs because his original wish was to play in his favorite Vikings jersey. He did not prove much of his capability during the three fours with the Chiefs. During this offseason after the Chiefs drafted rookie safety Louis Delmas, Page found that he could have even less playing time as the team planned to use him in tandem with Delmas. Cunningham, who was always staying with Page when the safety was frustrated, knew the situation well and could have been persuading the Lions to acquire Page from Chiefs.

Cunningham never stops efforts to get the best players for his team Lions. If possible, he would even have had Brett Favre put on Lions version of Favre jersey. He knows that Page would be a great safety once he was given big enough motivation, so he is likely to succeed in getting the deal done before regular season.

During breaks of watching Brett Favre drama, we are not having something new to watch. The New York Jets start cornerback Darrelle Revis is resembling his one-year teammate to stay undecided. The difference it that he is undecided on whether to report for the team’s training camp while his former teammate is not decided on when to wear back his Brett Favre jersey.

“Right now, my agent is doing the talking and I haven’t gotten feedback from him,” Revis told ESPN. “As of right now, I’m clueless. He’s talking to those guys. Until he gives me an update on what’s going on for the future, then I (don’t) know. I still have a couple weeks to still think about it, camp starts Aug. 1, so hopefully we can see eye to eye and get this thing done before camp starts.”

In hope to get a new contract paying him more than $15 million annually, Revis has skipped most of the team’s offseason workouts while his agent was negotiating with the Jets. Perhaps the team is thinking that he asks for too much because he did not give much impressive performance last season. Maybe Revis can also follow his former teammate to retire and then resume his career by joining a better team. If not liking the idea of reunion with Favre, he could choose to put on New Orleans Saints jersey to see if he can earn his first Super Bowl team with the reigning champion.

The Oakland Raiders did not do anything make sure starting defensive lineman Richard Seymour would stay with the team longer than one year when the deadline for franchise tagged player passed. Now Seymour will play with the Raiders as a franchise player for the upcoming season and become an unrestricted free agent next offseason.

Although Seymour won’t earn much less without a multi-year contract, the lacking of a long-term security may just put the Raiders at the edge of losing their best defensive man. Seymour has always been interested in joining an elite team like the Minnesota Vikings, so he would possibly turn to Minnesota to put on Vikings jersey if the team makes an offer. At the moment what the Raider can do is to stress the importance of Seymour and treat him as the most valuable player of the team, with the hopes that Seymour would like to stay with the Raiders when his current contract expires.

Some people doubt that Raiders hesitated to give Seymour a multi-year contract because Seymour’s numbers weren’t outstanding last season. He finished the 2009 season with only 4 sacks, 47 tackles and a forced fumble. The Raiders may be planning to observe the defensive man for another season before giving him a lucrative contract.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers just reportedly signed a two-year contract with veteran offensive guard Keydrick Vincent, however, latest reports said that the contract may pay Vincent only base salaries of the next seasons, without signing bonus, roster bonus or guaranteed money.

It was reported that the new contract was worth a total of $4.5 million, including incentive clauses based on playing time that could boost Vincent’s earnings. Formerly starting for three different teams, Vincent should have been worth more than that, but at age 32, Vincent began to have setbacks last season while playing for the Carolina Panthers, much worse than his performance when playing for the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers.

With hope to put on a Saints jersey, Vincent refused the offer of extending contract from the Panthers, who cut an undrafted rookie to make roster room for Vincent. However, he did not manage to win a job with the Saints and the Panthers finally closed the door for him. As a result, Vincent had to agree on terms of a new contract with the Buccaneers to ensure that he could play in 2010 season. At least he won’t go jobless when he is still young enough for playing football.

The New York Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis is just coming off his third career season with impressive performance and he has been looking for a new contract to match his performance since the beginning of this offseason. However, the Jets have not given any affirmative reply and the All-Pro cornerback is now planning to skip the training camp if now progress has been made by then.

According to latest reports, Revis will sit out till Aug 10, nine days after the training camp starts on Aug. 1. By doing so, he will lose an accrued year toward free agency if no new deal is reached by the time. However, the Jets have their reason to hesitate. What Revis has been asking for is to be the highest-paid cornerback in the league, which means he is looking for a contract that pays him $15-16 million on average annually. Even the a top quarterback like Brett Favre could only earn $13 million for wearing back Vikings jersey in 2010 season, and usually a top cornerback is worth 75-80 percent of what a top QB makes.

It has been reported that the Indianapolis Colts are planning to make their starting quarterback Peyton Manning the highest paid quarterback in league and even the new contract is expected to pay Manning no more than $16 million annually, so it’s really unlikely for Revis to get what he wants as his request is really beyond the team’s reach.

The discussion on Washington Redskins defensive end Albert Haynesworth should be the second hottest beside the talks about Brett Favre’s possible return. Now even Favre’s former teammate is turning the topic on Haynesworth: the Green Bay Packers cornerback Charles Woodson recently said that he did not understand why Haynesworth was unwilling to play as the team wants him to after receiving a big pay. Woodson said that he would play in any scheme for a $100 million pay, if he got a $150 million pay, he would even be willing to put on a Vikings jersey to play.

“I think the consensus is that nobody can understand how you can get $100 million and not work on playing whatever system it is,” Woodson said, according to SportsRadioInterviews.com. “I don’t care 3-4, 4-3, some 5-2, I don’t care. Who in the NFL wouldn’t want $100 million? I’m not a scheme guy. For me, I’m not a scheme guy. It doesn’t matter what scheme I’m in, I’m coming to play football. If a team said, ‘Hey, we want to pay you $100 million and we want to switch to a 3-4, what do you think?’ It doesn’t matter, I’m coming to play.”

Haynesworth may really need to learn something from Woodson’s experience. Woodson and his fellow cornerback Al Harris were in similar situation with Haynesworth last season as the Packers moved from a 4-3 scheme to a 3-4. The two cornerbacks were similarly reluctant to play a new scheme. They eventually played and survived. Actually, they played the new scheme even better than the old one. Woodson earned the title of NFL defensive player of the year and Harris was just as great before sustaining a season-ending knee injury. Haynesworth should have a try, too before claiming that he is not a 4-3 defensive player.

The Cleveland Browns rookie wide receiver Carlton Mitchell received his first contract of his NFL career on Wednesday from the team. Being drafted from the sixth round of the 2010 NFL draft, Mitchell did not expect that he would receive a contract before training camp and was excited for being trusted by his team.

At height 6 feet 3 and weighing 215 pounds, Mitchell ended his college career with a perfect performance, catching 40 passes for 706 yards and four TDs in 2009 at South Florida. At age 22, he did not actually finish his college degree and declared for the NFL Draft before his senior season. He previously thought his talent would attract elite teams like New Orleans Saints and Minnesota Vikings, but he eventually lost the chance to put on Saints jersey and got call from lowly ranked team Browns.

But now it seems not bad to play for the Browns and his talent has convinced the team to give him a four-year contract that will give him a good pay for playing during the next four years. The Browns coach used to describe Mitchell as a rookie who has the potential to become a solid No. 3 receiver, so Mitchell may like staying with the team for a long term.

The Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald grew up in Minneapolis and learned a lot from those talented professional football players of the Minnesota Vikings before he himself became another big-name NFL player of the Cardinals. However, he still considers Minneapolis a great place for a player to prepare for new season, so he invites a lot of other famous NFL players to practice with him at the University of Minnesota.

The players Fitzgerald include Greg Jennings, Brandon Marshall, Jermichael Finley, Golden Tate, Malcolm Jenkins, James Laurinaitis and two current Vikings jerseys wearers: wide receiver Sidney Rice and quarterback Tarvaris Jackson. The workout is scheduled on an efficient and demanding routine that lasts for three weeks, and the names of attendants changes from week to week as they are from different teams and have different arrangements. But the workout is still worth expectation as new attendants will be no less famous.

What’s more expectable, former star NFL players like Michael Irvin and Jerry Rice will also be present to help teach youngsters like Tate and Denver Broncos rookie Eric Decker. Irvin praised Fitzgerald highly for his ability to influence as many players as he can.