For some reason athletes think they can get there way. Jerry Porter is pushing the buttons of the Raiders organization but they will not give in. Art Shell and Jerry Porter know that they don’t and will likely not get along. So how will this relationship work out, since the two will have to deal with each other?

It all started according to Jerry Porter from the immediate signing of Art Shell as head coach. They went at it verbally and from then on have not tried to mend the relationship. Shell does not care that Porter does not like him and says that the relationship is business only. Meaning as long as Porter is doing his job, he does not care.

Then yesterday Porter decides to go off on a television station again on how much he is disliking the situation and demanded a trade. Suddenly the next day Porter is unable to practice due to a calf injury. Hmm, it has to be the early rigorous workouts getting to him. Come on Jerry, stop being a baby and do your job. When Art Shell was questioned on Porter’s status, he said that he will not be traded and the status of his health will be examined.

If we were Jerry Porter we would be calling ourselves an idiot. He has enough competition to deal with in the likes of Ronald Curry and Doug Gabriel. Not to mention he is coming off a poor year in which he could not complement Randy Moss, even though Moss was not 100 percent and missed plenty of games. Porter should be worried about his job and future of gaining a worthy contract by taking advantage of his current situation. Teams are not only going to shy away from him because of his on the field struggles but will shy away even further because of his attitude issues.

If you were a high profiled athlete, maybe, just maybe you could get away with going overboard like this. If you’re about to participate in a fantasy football draft, do not even consider Porter at this point. This situation could get ugly enough where he might be following the Keyshawn Johnson and Terrell Owens path by mid season. A coach of Art Shell’s nature does not give two cents about Porter’s demands. Especially when he has Randy Moss as his main guy.

Hopefully for Jerry and the Raiders this situation boils over and they handle this like men. The best thing for them would be to sit down and discuss things all over again. Porter has too much talent and could flourish with Aaron Brooks and maybe finally get his career launched. No longer is Porter a third or fourth year receiver, he is now approaching his seventh season and needs to start acting like it. Chances and stints to play that long in the league do not come to a lot, and Porter needs to realize that. There is no time for whining, pouting, and acting like a soccer player faking an injury to impress somebody.

Not often are there athletes that can take over on the football field and sustain that quality of play for over ten years. If it does happen more times than less it is by a player with great notoriety and expectancy to achieve well. For Jimmy Smith, there would not be a person that would have believed his story; which came to an uneventful off-season retirement conclusion.

Most great athletes have their last hooray known for by fans at seasons end or by poor play that runs them out. Jimmy Smith capped off his career in odd fashion by deciding to walk away from the game. This comes from an athlete that has been nothing but an exceptionally different athlete.

Over the last ten years we have seen plenty of receiver greats. Tim Brown, Jerry Rice, and Cris Carter are just a few names that jump out as banner hall of fame names. Yet they all had horrible transitions to leaving the game of football. Tim Brown was a cast off to Tampa Bay, Jerry Rice was practically dealt his retirement by the Broncos in training camp last season, and Cris Carter was a Dolphin for no reason.

So why and how has the media treated Jimmy Smith’s retirement as basic as possible? This guy posted 1,000 yard seasons for practically every year that he was a Jaguar. He was a cornerstone of the inaugural Jacksonville Jaguars team that featured Keenan McCardell, Mark Brunell, and Natrone Means. If the Jaguars do not have an illustrious ceremony out the gate of their 2006 season than something definitely is not right. Smith was as unique a receiver as they get and deserves instant banner and jersey retirement recognition before anyone even has a chance to don number 82. Hang it up in Gillette Stadium and even keep his locker untouched as a representation of how much he has meant and done for the Jaguars organization.

Approaching the age of forty is never a good sign as an NFL athlete, especially as a wide receiver. While the Jaguars were more than willing to have Jimmy Smith back in 2006, it was definitely for a short term commitment. This would have been Jimmy Smith’s last year under contract with the Jaguars, and we all know the ugly situation that would have unraveled after the 2006 season. Smith would have been forced into retirement and likely that move would have been preceded by lesser and less action on the football field as the NFL weeks went by.

So the decision by Smith to retire was all a preparation move to avoid the “I’m better than the franchise” treatment (cough Favre) a year from now. Or better yet to avoid being so vent up with frustration from your team that you set out to prove them wrong by signing with another team. It is a move that never works and just makes the athlete look older and an inch away to retirement.

Things really fell into place for Jimmy Smith by the NFL giving a franchise to the city of Jacksonville in 1995. Let’s not forget that Smith was a member of the Dallas Cowboys from 1992 through 1995 and was looking like a future XFL candidate. He was cut by the Cowboys and would have likely strung along on some teams as a fifth receiver before fading out of the NFL completely. But by the impressive skills of his mother with a book of clippings on Jimmy Smith, he was giving a golden opportunity with the Jaguars.

Smith stepped in right away as a staple for the Jaguars, and was part of one of the best tandem receivers for several years. He was a fantasy football yardage king that racked up over 1,000 yards nine out of ten seasons from 1996 through last season. A true valued pick as every year was expected to be the season that his numbers would slip. They never did, and we tip our hats to probably the best receiver over the last ten years besides Marvin Harrison.

All the time Brett Favre took to announce his decision, and he did what people thought all along. He is going to return to play a game that has treated him well. He’ll likely break Dan Marino’s all time touchdown record. But if the Packers are stuck with a couple of wins ten weeks into the season, how do you bench Favre for Aaron Rodgers. In all likelihood the Packers won’t, and that’s where this decision by Favre hurts the Packers. Ultimately there are many ways to look at his return, but the number one thing is, why?

He has one season to return and accomplish a goal that he has already done. Green Bay is a team that has and will on opening day, holes all over the place. This situation is truly unneeded to cap off a Hall of Fame career.

People are already associating Favre as a quarterback that plays as reckless as a drunk driver. He has lost control of his own control. Favre use to have the type of control that did not exceed desperation on so many plays every given week. Last year was one of the worst displays statistically on paper by a quarterback as far as interceptions. The majority were all 100 percent on Favre’s part.

If you try to look on the bright side, maybe there is a sliver of hope for the Packers. With how tough the NFC is, there is no possible way that the NFC North will be getting a wild card. So that leaves the division’s berth up in the air.

Chicago is the front runner. If there defense can be broken up a bit, than they will be a below .500 team. Everyone already knows that the offense thrives off the defense, and can’t play an aggressive style. In Minnesota, they’re solid as well, but banking on Brad Johnson again will prove to be their biggest mistake. Detroit does not have to worry about their division spot, as they will be dead last Their main concern is staying a few games below the second worst team in the league.

So, the Packers can have a shot at the playoffs. Maybe that’s Favre’s main agenda. As he knows and the Packers organization knows, the NFC is too strong with the Seahawks and Giants leading the way.

The Packers did have one of the best pass defenses in the league, and a young group defensively. But that defense was misleading as they played six games against their division foes, who were all poor offensively. The addition of Charles Woodson could keep their defense above average. That is if he can remain on the field a full season. Something he hasn’t accomplished since the 2001 campaign.

Offensively, the Packers know that they can run the football. When Ahman Green and Najeh Davenport went down, Sam Gado came in and shocked the fantasy football world. So that’s not the issue. The problem is at wide receiver. The same group of guys exist, with one in Javon Walker wanting out. Donald Driver has done his best over the years, but he can’t be the number one guy anymore. With Robert Ferguson never being able to stay on the field, the receivers are going to be a constant issue. Trying to address that problem can be done somewhat in the draft, but receivers usually struggle the most from college football.

Overall, Favre’s decision to come back is going to hamper the Packers development. Even if the Packers make the playoffs. The reason why is because with their early draft pick, all NFL mock drafts have the Packers selecting AJ Hawk. Sure he is a great pick, and likely a star for years.

The fact is, if Favre had announced a retirement, don’t you think they would have gone after Jay Cutler or Vince Young? The Packers are not confident enough to trust Aaron Rodgers yet. Leinart, Cutler, and Young are all expected to be great quarterbacks for a long time.

In five years, people will be looking at the 2006 draft and saying why didn’t the Packers draft Young or Cutler. The reason will be, because that was Favre’s last year.

The disgust of Peyton Manning and the Colts was once again displayed on their faces, after Sunday’s disappointing outing. Manning has had everyone on his side for the last several years to get to the big stage, and once again he has let everyone down. The befuddled quarterback, that is now 3-6 in the playoffs, could only put out his frustration towards his offensive lineman. Peyton, you’re a veteran in this league now, and you got beat as fair as can be.

They often say Manning should be comparable to Dan Marino in how efficient and accurate he is as a passer. Manning’s stats and ability to take over games does go hand in hand with Marino. One area though that the two are completely different at, is the ability to handle pressure. Marino didn’t have the legs to scramble but wouldn’t get flustered under duress. He’d stand in the pocket, and do the slightest perfect movements to evade a rush for an extra second or two. Whether it was simply a quick shuffle or a step up in the pocket, it was enough to give Marino that open lane to hit his receiver with his cannon of an arm.

Manning on the other hand, usually doesn’t get pressured because defensive coaches know how often he kills them when he does. A defense might send a few packages a game at Manning. Besides that though, they’re just trying to figure out how to stop the run and pass.

As the years have gone by though, the only time Manning has looked rusty along with his team, is when he is pressured. The Steelers brought blitz after blitz and Manning couldn’t take it. The timing of everything was off for his receivers routes, and therefore Manning’s passes were off.

Manning loved to blame his offensive line, but what could they do? The Steelers were bringing blitzers from all sides of the field, and even Manning didn’t know where they were coming from. Why the Colts didn’t go to a more of a hurry up offense is a huge question? It seemed at times they tried to, but once at the line of scrimmage Manning would try audibling which never worked. All they did was give the defense an extra five to six seconds to get ready to drill Manning.

In all honesty, Manning should have left the play calling to the Colts offensive coordinator. If anyone replays that game, they’ll notice the Colts were more successful when Manning wasn’t rethinking plays. It was just too much for him to try to match the Steelers defense strategy. It took him out of the game mentally and he never got back in. Even on the sidelines Manning looked confused and unconfident.

The talent Manning had on his team is about as high as you can get in the NFL. Does he realize the squandered chances he has let pass by? Also, for Peyton to believe he would have done better with a different offensive line, he better rethink that comment. The Colts never established the running game like a passing team should, which just played into the hands of Bill Cowher.

The entire game was a wash from the start for the Colts, and now has done the same to a team that played on a level that everyone thought was unbeatable.

Where are your star fantasy athletes? Probably on this week’s list of you’ve got to be kidding me.

Quarterbacks

Ryan Fitzpatrick
No fantasy owner can believe stats like Fitzpatrick’s went unused by 100 percent of fantasy owners. It almost never happens in the NFL that a backup does as good as Fitzpatrick did Sunday. Not only did he do well, he led the Rams back from twenty one points for an overtime victory. Repeating this mark may be hard to due, considering Fitzpatrick will be game planned for this week.

Kyle Boller
He decided to show up when the game was out of reach. Boller was expected to do something positive this season. The best thing he did was get hurt and spare us from watching bad performances. Never has a professional football team needed a quarterback more than Baltimore.

Drew Brees
LT can’t do it all. Drew is starting to enter the play of zone that begins to question whether or not he is a franchise quarterback. The guy is amazing when Antonio Gates is on the field, but without his safety target he is a different quarterback. Brees may just need receivers to flourish on another level. One thing that’s definite, is that Brees needs to elevate his play for the Chargers to make a late run.

Kerry Collins
Collins just lost any chance of ever being a fantasy starting quarterback. Many owners went out of their way to draft Collins only to be stunned week by week. He has all the weapons a quarterback can ask for, but makes more mistakes than Brett Favre (joking). If Collins were ever to find some consistency he’d be golden in fantasy football.

Steve McNair
He hasn’t been doing too bad. He’ll need to keep that arm ready to sling, as he’ll need to spread it out against the Colts.

Running Backs

Brian Westbrook
See what he can do as an actual running back? Westbrook is a Pro Bowl type running back, but never gets the opportunity to shine. Maybe with Donovan McNabb out, he’ll be more involved every week. If he finishes out the year well, he should be considered a top ten back in the NFL. Sort of a Marshall Faulk of the late 90’s back. One that can run the ball well and be just as dangerous out of the backfield.

Ron Dayne
A fluke on turkey day, who would of known. Dayne broke out on a few runs that’ll make his career footage vault in a few years. He’ll be a great trivia question in ten years. Which former Heisman had a career day on Thanksgiving?

LT
Vintage LT. His performance alone on Sunday deserved attention from ESPN classic. What he did in the final five minutes against the Redskins is comparable to Reggie Miller’s eight points in some odd seconds against the Knicks.

Ricky Williams
Miami wasn’t joking that they were going to split the carries up. Williams leaner look is paying off when he can get in the open field. He should still add a little extra weight so that he can also add that punishing style back to his resume.

Wide Receivers

Joey Galloway
He keeps producing, but we still can’t believe it. He did nothing for almost five years, and now is all of the sudden a stud. Something will give soon on Galloway. If not he’ll be at the Pro Bowl and the comeback athlete of the year.

Andre Johnson
There he is. David Carr got him the ball for the first time this season. This duo was expected to be one of the top ten connections this year. Instead it’s been one of those look over dumb presumptions.

Joe Jurevicious
Jurevicious is a tall receiver that can go get the football. Hasselbeck will find him and does often. But as the weeks keep going, you can see Hasselbeck leaning a little too much on Jurevicious. In overtime this past weekend, Hasselbeck got away with a throw that was intended for Jurevicious but looked like a gift to the Giants.

Lavernues Coles
The most disappointing big time athlete acquired in the offseason is ….

Who said to give up on the Pack? Knowing Favre’s resiliency we all should have known better. At 2-7 the Packers are as just alive as the Vikings, Bears, and Lions. What other results or players over the weekend had you saying, you’ve got to be kidding me?

Quarterbacks

Jake Delhomme
John Fox has to be happy about one thing with Delhomme. The Panthers are winning. The formula hasn’t been due to Delhomme’s arm, and expecting a turn around season from him could make this team even better. Besides Delhomme’s consistency to hit Steve Smith, he has really struggled. Keary Colbert caught a touchdown against the Jets on Sunday, and will need to emerge even more for Delhomme.

Chris Simms
Simms was the slinger no one expected him to be on Sunday. He led the team to a fabulous comeback win, and celebrated like he was starting for the first time. The Redskins defense has been giving up big plays this season, but Simms exposed that to another level Sunday. He’ll need to carry over some of that confidence to keep the Buccaneers offense functioning.

Tommy Maddox
He has probably had the toughest stretch of a little over a year. Date it back to last year when he lost his job to rookie Ben Roethlisberger. Now when called upon he played so horrible that Bill Cowher designated Charlie Batch as the backup. For some reason Maddox can’t stay away from the picture, and even as the third stringer was called upon last week when Batch went down. Maddox is in a funk that even an NBA shooter wouldn’t be able to get out of. With the Steelers winning comfortably last weekend, they still ran their offense accordingly to try to get Maddox involved. It still didn’t work, and Bill Cowher is hoping that Roethlisberger will be able to go.

Kyle Boller
Brian Billick just admit you made a mistake in drafting Boller as your quarterback. The project will never make it to a satisfactory rating, and you just have to let it go. Boller has been a bust and will be a bust as long as he is in a Ravens uniform.

Running Backs

Ricky Williams
Besides a brief two game stretch where he looked decent, Williams has been getting licked. Asanti Samuel blew him up at the line of scrimmage last week, and his smaller size is proving to be too small. Williams needs to add ten to twelve pounds back so that he can take on the hits in between the tackles. No matter how fast he thinks he is, Williams made himself a runner by being a physical back before.

Marshall Faulk
The role Faulk was supposed to be given was backup. Not back up to the sideline for the entire season. Even Steven Jackson’s role was noticeable last year as Faulk’s backup. The Rams just aren’t using the veteran Faulk at all, and it makes you scratch your head. The only time he is even remotely seen is catching the ball, and that’s not acceptable for the Rams. They need to use his skills as much as possible.

Carnell Williams
Egh, the season that started so marvelous has turned into mush. Williams is no longer even close to the break away season he was off too. In fact in his last four games played he hasn’t had enough rushing yards combined to cross the century mark. If that trend continues, the Buccaneers can kiss their playoff chances goodbye.

Wide Receivers

Chris Chambers
Showing the talent as a great receiver is what Chambers career has been thus far. He’ll make the unreal highlight catches and burn cornerbacks for touchdowns. But then there is always the type of game that Chambers had on Sunday. Repeated dropped passes that hurt Miami big time. That’s the difference between a receiver with potential and one that’s there.

Isaac Bruce
The Rams are bringing him back slowly, but fantasy owners don’t care about that. His injury this season has hurt the Rams options at second receiver. Kevin Curtis has done well on given weeks, but isn’t the same threat as what Isaac Bruce can be.

Brandon Lloyd
Yes you deserved being blown up on by a coach on national tv. He didn’t sacrifice his body in a drive that could have helped the 49ers immensely if they scored a touchdown. Shame on Lloyd, as this has been a solid season for him.