Braves Could Return to Local Ownership

ESPN.com

After months of would-be buyers kicking the tires on the Atlanta Braves, an investment group led by Ron Terwilliger, president and CEO of Trammell Crow Residential, has emerged as a leading candidate to purchase the baseball franchise from Time Warner, ESPN.com has learned.

Terwilliger has been approved by Major League Baseball to enter into negotiations that could lead to the purchase of the NL East club. That means he has been given clearance to go through the team’s books and conduct due diligence on the franchise’s operation. Terwilliger met Tuesday in Atlanta with other potential investors, and the investment group has retained New York-based Galatioto Sports Partners to represent it in negotiations.

[...]

On Dec. 13, 2005, Time Warner acknowledged its interest in selling the Braves, winners of an unprecedented 14 straight division titles. Since then, local media in Atlanta have been fixated on the possibility of Falcons owner Arthur Blank gaining dominance of the Atlanta market with the purchase of a second pro franchise. Sources close to the negotiations, however, suggest that Blank’s interest might have been oversold to advance the bidding, noting also that it is unlikely a public company like Time Warner would sell the club off a single bid.

Blank, who amassed a fortune as co-founder of Home Depot, stepped away from negotiations last month.

[...]

Terwilliger fits Major League Baseball’s preference for local ownership, as he has headed the Atlanta-based Trammell Crow since 1986. The company ranks as one of the largest developers of apartments and condominiums in the country, and has assets in excess of $3 billion.

An honor graduate of the United States Naval Academy (Class of ’63), Terwilliger served five years in the Navy before receiving his MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business.

[...]

Last year, Forbes.com estimated the value of the Braves at $392 million, which ranked them eighth among baseball franchises. The sale of the club is likely to fetch something close to $400 million. Unless the process speeds up dramatically, it’s doubtful any sale will be final until late in the season, at the earliest.

It will be nice to get rid of the penny-pinching AOL/Time Warner cabal that has presided over the recent departure of so much talent. As the article notes, the management of the club, including GM John Schuerholz and Manager Bobby, is excellent. If it weren’t for their leadership in recent years with some of the rough starts and loss of stars, the team would not have continued their division win streak. However, they were seriously hamstrung by tightened purse strings and it will be good to get a local owner back in charge.

Cross-posted from Backcountry Conservative.

Senator Questions Gamecocks’ Mascot

In a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing yesterday, S.C. State Senator Darrell Jackson brought up the mascot and logo of South Carolina’s athletic teams during a discussion on strengthening the state’s laws against illegal cockfighting. Jackson said the school needed to reconsider its mascot if pending legislation becomes law and asked “how can we as lawmakers and other leaders of this state justify a major institution in our state running ads and logos on billboards with a fighting gamecock with spurs on the feet?”

Jackson pointed out that he didn’t want the Gamecock dropped as the school’s mascot totally but wants the spurs removed from the chicken’s feet on the logo. Some giving levels in the Gamecock Club are Spur levels and the mascot prior to Cocky was Big Spur.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has called on the school to drop the mascot completely in the past and then changed their position to the same one Jackson took yesterday (removal of the spurs.) A school spokesman say, “”We don’t glorify the cockfighting aspect.”

Cross-posted from Fanblogs.com.

Steelers en Espanol?

Is this the first officially promoted team website in Spanish?

The Steelers aren’t the only team to have a Spanish website – Dallas, for example, has a Spanish version of their news site. However, they are showing it prominently on their front page, which no other team seems to be doing right now. Western Pennsylvania does not have many Spanish speaking people, so this request must be coming from fans elsewhere. Dallas may be America’s Team (couldn’t help that one, James!), but the Steelers are making a move to become the World’s Team. I do expect to see more of this as the NFL’s influence continues to creep south of the Mexican border.

Cross posted over at The Unusual Suspects. You know, that place on the wrong side of the tracks (but still outside the beltway).

Cowboys Leadership Losses Mounting

Jean-Jacques Taylor observes that the Cowboys have parted ways with a lot of its veteran leaders and wonders what implications that will have for the team.

La’Roi Glover is gone. So is Dan Campbell. And Keyshawn Johnson. And in a couple of weeks, Larry Allen’s name will probably be added to the list. That’s a lot of veteran leadership lost in the last few weeks. No one knows if it can be adequately replaced.

Now, you can argue that the veteran leadership didn’t seem to help much last year when Dallas faltered down the stretch and finished 9-7, missing the playoffs after a 7-3 start. The reality, though, is that each of those players played a key role in helping the Cowboys improve after a disastrous 2004 season.

More important, you didn’t have to worry about their agendas. They cared only about winning. You can’t always say that in today’s NFL. They practiced hard. They made their teammates practice hard. They studied hard and they made their teammates study hard. They were the glue that held that team together when it had potentially devastating losses to Washington and Oakland and Seattle early in the season.

I must admit, many of these moves have me scratching my head. I understand that, in the salary cap era, teams have to cut their ties with aging players who are making too much money. And that’s especially the case with players like Campbell, who aren’t even starters. But it definitely seems like an odd move for a team that was a competent kicker away from the playoffs last year.

Steelers Sign Batch, Keisel, Free Agent Clark

The big free agent news out of Pittsburgh is the Steelers loss of Antwaan Randel-El in the last few days. However, the team is doing what it always does during free agency: quietly re-sign contracts, letting those who want more money than the Rooneys are willing to pay strike out for greener pastures. They will also pick up lower profile free agents who fit into their team.

First, to the departures. Randel-El was going to be gone, no question. The Steelers front office was not going to pay him anything near what Washington offered. I have a feeling that no other team in their right mind would have paid what the Redskins paid for him. He made one cool play during the Super Bowl, and wasn’t a terrible reciever, and while those things are worth some moeny, there is no way they are worth $31 million. Chris Hope, the free safety, is also looking elsewhere. Kimo von Oelhoffen has signed with the Jets as a defensive end. Both of those players will leave bigger holes for the team to fill than Randel-El’s departure.

The Steelers have signed Charlie Batch as the backup quarterback, which seems to be a good move, considering his performance last year when he had the role. They also have signed Brett Keisel to replace von Oelhoffen at defensive end, and signed Ryan Clark of the Washington Redskins to fill the free safety position. I have a feeling that the Redskins are going to regret their decision to pay Randel-El $34 million over seven years while letting a safety go for what is certain to be a fraction of that cost. (As of this time, little info exists on the amount of money these deals are worth.)

Pittsburgh-Post Gazette story on recent Steelers moves.

What the Heck…? More ESPN Sucktitude

I was watching ESPN the other night for the Pitt vs. WVU game, and they did an item about Jerome Bettis on SportsCenter. The anchor talked about how he’d ended his career in the perfect way and that he was now going off into the sunset. They mentioned his move to an analyst’s chair. And then that was it.

No statements from him had happened that day, he wasn’t arrested for anything — in short, as far as I could tell, nothing had happened to Bettis that evening that we didn’t know about last month. So why was he on SportsCenter? The item wasn’t even a minute long . . . . I didn’t get it.

Truly weird.

Since then was the bizarre incident where Bettis lost thousands of dollars worth of jewelry in Detriot So maybe they had meant to refer to that. However, ESPN needs to hire anchors who have an attention span long enough to realize what the story is about. No wonder PTI is the only thing worth watching anymore. I seriously waited at least day before the jewelry story hit the local Pittsburgh papers.

Originally posted at The Unusual Suspects. The post there was my confused reaction after hearing the item on Bettis, and being able to find nothing on the internet (Google News included) about Bettis.

Cowboys Cut Keyshawn, Sparking More T.O. Rumors

DMN’s Todd Archer reported at 3:48 PM CST that the Cowboys have released standout wideout Keyshawn Johnson.

Keyshawn Johnson will no longer be a Cowboy. The Cowboys opted not to pay the veteran receiver a $1 million roster bonus and will release him, saving $1.5 million against the 2006 salary cap.

The Cowboys had until 3 p.m. Tuesday to pay Johnson the bonus, but decided to cut loose their leading receiver the previous two seasons. In two years with the Cowboys, Johnson caught 141 passes for 1,820 yards and 12 touchdowns. “Keyshawn is one of a handful of the top competitors that have ever played for the Dallas Cowboys,” Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said in a news release. “The more he was a part of our team, the more we appreciated him as a player.”

Johnson was entering the final year of his contract and was seeking a raise. At 33, the Cowboys did not want to invest mega-money into an older receiver. He is also coming off his second knee surgery in as many years.

The release is sure to set off even more speculation that the Cowboys will get in the market for Terrell Owens, who was cut by Philadelphia on Tuesday.

This move is simply bizarre. $1.5 million is dirt cheap for even a number two receiver, let alone someone of Keyshawn’s caliber. I can understand not wanting to give him a long extension at his age but they had him under contract.

Update: In a 5:16 PM CST rewrite entitled Keyshawn not surprised by release, Archer adds some additional insights.

“I’m not really surprised,” Johnson said. “Sports is a business and a team has to do what’s right for it. I’m a little excited about the prospect of being a free agent for the first time in my career, but I owe it to the Dallas Cowboys to give them a chance to re-sign me once I hit the market.

[...]

Johnson was entering the final year of his contract and was seeking a raise. The Cowboys did not want to invest big money into Johnson, 33. He is also coming off his second knee surgery in as many years.

[...]

Johnson came to the Cowboys in a trade with Tampa Bay for Joey Galloway in 2004 after he was deactivated by Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden for the final six games of the 2003 season. With the Cowboys, Johnson caused no trouble, showing only his fiery personality last season in an exchange with quarterback Drew Bledsoe after a fumble.

“I’m bummed to see Keyshawn go,” Bledsoe said. “I got along well with him and came to really respect him as a player. I’m disappointed to see him go. He made a lot of plays for me and for the team.”

While Johnson is one of coach Bill Parcells favorite players, this is the second time Parcells has had a hand in his departure from a team. In 2000, as the New York Jets general manager, Parcells traded Johnson to Tampa Bay.

A FWST report has similar quotes from Johnson:

Johnson, who will represent himself in free agency, said Jones told him that the Cowboys would consider re-signing him once he tested the market and determined his value. Johnson said he would give the Cowboys an opportunity to do so.

It seems unlikely to me that the Cowboys would release Johnson if they intended to sign him back. Given that receivers with far more question marks, such as Cowboys castaway Antonio Bryant, got a whole lot more money on the open market than Dallas balked at for Johnson, I can’t imagine they’ll be able to reach an accord. As a Cowboys fan, though, I hope I’m wrong.

QB Chain Reaction: Kitna Signs with Lions

That was fast. The chain reaction set off by the Culpepper and Brees signings is underway.

John Clayton (2:50 PM ET) reports,

Jon Kitna made the first move Tuesday for what will be a busy day for NFL quarterbacks by agreeing to a four-year deal with the Detroit Lions.

Terms of the four-year contract weren’t available, but it is believed that Kitna will get a signing bonus of $3 million to $4 million. Kitna visited the Jets and Lions and was under consideration by the Ravens. He sensed something was going to happen with another team over the weekend when he told the Bengals he would not be returning.

In response, the Bengals brought in Rams quarterback Jamie Martin for a visit.

Kitna’s decision could heat up talks between the Redskins and the Jets for Redskins quarterback Patrick Ramsey. The Redskins want to move Ramsey on Tuesday in a trade. Detroit, the Jets and the Dolphins were the teams talking to the Redskins.

A nine-year veteran, Kitna played the last five seasons for the Cincinnati Bengals after a four-year stint with the Seattle Seahawks. He was the Bengals’ starter as recently as 2003, but then was replaced by first-round draft choice Carson Palmer during the following offseason. In the last two seasons, Kitna has played in just seven regular-season games and started only three.

This is a good pickup for the Lions, giving them two decent prospects at the QB position. Whether Kitna will be good enough to supplant Joey Harrison is unclear but one imagines having competition will make them both better.

Reports: Brees Headed to Saints

Reports: Brees headed to Saints

Free-agent quarterback Drew Brees has agreed to play for the New Orleans Saints, according to The Times-Picayune and WWL-TV, both of which cited unidentified sources in their reports.

Brees spent the last five seasons with the San Diego Chargers but reached a stalemate with them on a new contract. He had been in negotiations with the Saints and the Miami Dolphins. Terms of the new agreement were not available.

Assuming this goes through and combined with the Dolphins’ trade for Daunte Culpepper, the number of potential franchise caliber free agent quarterbacks on the market is now zero. Everyone else needing a new QB will have to try their luck in the draft or bring in the likes of Kerry Collins, John Kitna, or Patrick Ramsey and hope for the best.