Thursday’s Daily Five: There’s a reason players are willing to sit out season than accept deal centered around owners previous offer

THURSDAY’S DAILY FIVE *musings & opinions on today’s latest buzz* 1. Following the league filing suit against the players last week, legal ramifications are hovering around CBA talks as a vote of the union’s membership on filing a “disclaimer of interest” will wrap up Friday……….. Players are expected to garner two-third’s of votes to grant authority to disclaim by January 2nd which would allow the NHLPA to file anti-trust lawsuits against the league. However, the good news on the NHL lockout front is that I hear a sense of urgency is really starting to develop from the players side as prominent players behind the scenes closely involved in the process are pushing their leaders to re-engage in serious negotiations as

Wednesday’s Daily Five: Talk of Tomlin being on the hot seat is laughable

WEDNESDAY’S DAILY FIVE 1. Mike Tomlin on the hot seat? This week Mike Florio of Profootballtalk mentioned Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin being among the NFL coaches who could be on the hot seat this off-season. The reality of the situation is that Tomlin is in no danger of losing his job. Even if the Steelers were to implode in the final two games, Tomlin’s seat still won’t be getting warm. One theory on why we’re seeing this speculation surface? It’s well known that the Rooney’s pushed Todd Haley on Tomlin and I hear there is a very, very small group of national writers who feel that the Rooney’s brought Todd Haley on board with intention of him possibly becoming head

Tuesday’s Daily Five: Why Steelers will be a one and done team

TUESDAY’S DAILY FIVE *musings & opinions* 1. The New York Jets putting on another embarrassing display of football last night in their 14-10 loss to the Tennessee Titans, has ended any scenario of their being a three way tie for the final wild card spot between the Jets, Steelers and Bengals at 9-7. That is welcome news for Steelers fans and the stage is now set for the Steelers to control their playoff destiny. Win at home vs Cincinnati (8-6) and Cleveland (5-9) and the Steelers are in. That though is easier said than done. [instory] Meanwhile, watching the Jets and Titans last night is a reminder why it’s insane that Roger Goodell is intrigued (aside from revenue) about expanding the

MONDAY’S DAILY FIVE: Should league and players get creative on 5 year contract term limit?

MONDAY’S DAILY FIVE 1. The NHL and NHLPA are expected to set up a meeting later this week, following Thursday’s collapse in talks. While there’s been chatter among NHL insiders like Darren Dreger of TSN that both sides are pushing their leaders to get back to the bargaining table, it remains to be seen if one side will blink in the lets say next week or two where this won’t end up being a last minute deal at somepoint in January. Expectations remain that Don Fehr will hold firm to his master plan of playing a game of poker until the very last minute. The side though I’m fascinated to watch in the next 7-14 days is the owners. Gary

Thursday’s Daily Five: Fehr overplayed his hand, lost best deal he was going to get for players

THURSDAY’S DAILY FIVE *musings & opinions* 1. Whether you agree with the owners tactics or not, (demanding a “yes” or “no” on their offer) the NHL was always going to have the leverage in CBA talks and they have painted the players into a corner and what we saw today is Don Fehr losing the best deal he could have got for the players. Fehr who many feel has no interest in making a deal until the last minute, overplayed his hand and when there’s a CBA deal struck, it’s going to look somewhat worse than the offer made by the owners this week. Fehr continues to talk the players into believing him that he can get them more and

Wednesday’s Daily Five: Egos were left at the door but will that continue?

WEDNESDAY’S DAILY FIVE *Musings & Opinions* 1. The egos were left at the door Tuesday night. That’s the main reason more than anything that we are finally seeing some traction made between the players and owners. Although a deal might still be at least 10-14 days away, maybe longer, both sides appear to finally see the light, showing a willingness to conduct actual serious negotiations. As talks remain “fragile”, let’s just hope the egos from either side don’t pop up again and derail the traction that’s being made. However, one individual on the league’s side still questioned that Don Fehr is ready to make a deal “just yet.” 2. Ron Burkle to no surprise made his presence made in Tuesday’s

Tuesday’s Daily Five: Is today’s players/owners meeting going to be more of the same?

TUESDAY’S DAILY FIVE *Musings & Opinions* 1. The hockey world was buzzing last night when Boston based reporter Steve Burton reported that there was a secret meeting between the NHL and NHLPA on Monday leading to a significant breakthrough and an announcement that the lockout is over could be made as early as Tuesday or Wednesday. Initially when I read this report at around mid-night, I like many wished this guy was right but knew that he probably wasn’t. However, I woke up for a minute this morning believing the lockout had actually ended as I had a deep sleep and dreamt that I covered the Penguins season opener that resulted in a 6-5 overtime win against the Islanders with Tyler

Monday’s Daily Five: On Jovan Belcher; Tomlin/Harbaugh incident, Batch; Arians coach of the year?

MONDAY’S DAILY FIVE *Musings & Opinions* 1. John Buccigross of ESPN said it best over the weekend about how the Jovan Belcher tragic murder/suicide was being portrayed by some people. “Note to tv people: Kasandra M. Perkins didn’t “lose her life”. It was taken away in a brutal, bullying, cowardly way. Murder. That’s all,” Buccigross said. Kasandra Perkins indeed had her life taken away from a coward and now a three month old child is left without any parents. Anyone who tries to sympathize for Belcher on issues he might have had is just making excuses for him and we’re seeing some reporters try to analyze how this could happen by pointing to shots to the head and concussions Belcher might

Friday’s Daily Five: Statistics show Russell Martin is a small upgrade over Rod Barajas

FRIDAY’S DAILY FIVE (PIRATES EDITION) *Rumblings, musings & opinions on today’s hottest topics* 1. The Pirates dished out the biggest contract in franchise history Thursday night to catcher Russell Martin as the two sides agreed to a 2 year, $17 million contract. The deal makes Martin the fourth highest paid catcher in the game. Is he a top-5 catcher in the game? Absolutely not, but when you’re the Pirates, you have to overpay by $3 to $5 million to land marginal free agents. 2. I don’t have a huge issue in the Pirates giving Martin $17 million over two years but the sense on Russell Martin is this: The Pirates have upgraded over Rod Barajas but not significantly enough to

Winter Classic viewed as do or die point in CBA? Holt, Ravens, & NFL opener

WEDNESDAY’S DAILY FIVE *Rumblings, Opinions, & musings on five of today’s hottest topics* 1. WINTER CLASSIC VIEWED AS DO OR DIE POINT?: As the NHL is headed towards another lockout, I get asked all the time when I think the NHL will be playing again. Since around June I’ve constantly heard from those in NHL circles believing hockey won’t be played until late November, early December and as the CBA deadline looms, there’s still a doom and gloom feeling around the league that things appear headed towards a month or two month work stoppage. The key date to keep an eye on is the Winter classic which is to be played on January 1st. According to one veteran player, the