Steelers veteran CB Townsend hopes to play more football

Having played for the same team Pittsburgh Steelers for 12 years, veteran cornerback Deshea Townsend still believes that he would be able to play for a few more years with the team before he retires as a Steeler. At age 34, he is at least much younger than Brett Favre, who is still likely to put on Vikings jersey as a starting quarterback.

"I did kind of expect to be back, just to add some depth at the position," Townsend told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "They know there's a player out there they don't really have to teach the system, that can come in and play. .. Pittsburgh is home. You always want to be where you started."

As an unrestricted free agent, Townsend is still waiting for a call from the Steelers to ask him back. He continues training and plans to report for the training camp. Does he have a plan B? Surely he has. Townsend used to tell reporters that he wanted to be next Kevin Colbert and work as a scout one day.

Giants’ rookie safety Jones could quit football

The New York Giants rookie safety Chad Jones was reported to be impossible for his rookie NFL season. After being severely injured in a car accident on Friday, his left leg, ankle and foot are in bad condition now and unlikely to recover for football games, but he could still start a sport career as a baseball player.

According to Jones’ agent, Rocky Arceneaux, Jones was an elite baseball prospect and used to play pitcher/outfielder on LSU’s College World Series winning team in 2009, and playing baseball would put less stress on Jones’ injured leg than playing football, so it’s very possible for Jones to make a stellar career still by playing baseball. But if Jones really turns to baseball, he would have to repay the $848,000 signing bonus he received from the Giants.

"I’m optimistic (of a 2011 return)," Arceneaux told the Gannett News Service. "I would like to hope so. He’s such a great athlete. I think if anybody could pull it off and come back from this, it would be Chad.”

Jones’ father, Al Jones has a similar optimistic attitude toward his son’s future. While acknowledging that the healing process is going to take a long time, he believes that everything is positive right now and he will fine even if his son will no longer have chance to put on his beloved Vikings jersey to play football again.

Injured ankle has nothing to do with Favre’s decision

When people began to guess whether the possible surgery Brett Favre needs to have will impact what decision the quarterback may make on his playing status, Favre himself made announcement that the surgery is only to be a minor one and he still remains undecided. Can you figure out the truth? There has been definitely a decision already, but he simply keeps it wrapped up so that we can keep guessing.

If Favre really has any intention to quit, he would not have caused so much discussion by coming out from time to time to release a piece of his mind or recent health condition. It’s obvious that he still enjoys being discussed rather than get prepared for retirement. While some people give reasons for Favre to return, some others are trying best to figure out whether he keeps telling us he is undecided. One of the opinions is that Favre simply wants to avoid offseason workout. If that’s true, he could simply tell the team about this and he surely won’t be refused. It’s not necessary for him to play all these tricks whether he decides to return to retire. At age 40 and having played professional football in NFL for 19 seasons, he has earned enough honor to have the freedom of making any decision he likes.

There is a most reasonable explanation for us to keep hearing of all kinds of things about Favre: they are all deliberately designed to attract attention. He will have a surgery and will wear back the No.4 Vikings jersey and it won’t be surprising even if the decision is made in the last hour before the season opener. Get over it, because we are in offseason.

Vikings surprised us with their choices in draft

Last offseason, the Minnesota Vikings successfully attracted enough attention from NFL fans by managing to sign Brett Favre, who previously announced retirement after an unhappy season with New York Jets. And on the point, they had success again by drafting new players beyond expectation and keeping it secret on whether Favre will put on Vikings jersey again.

The only choice that the Vikings made and did to confuse us was the pick of Virginia cornerback Chris Cook, who is 6-2 tall and had good playing skills and fine speed, all the elements necessary to a good cornerback. However, it was still a bit surprise when it turned out that the Vikings’ first choice in the draft was a cornerback. Previously people had guessed that the team could acquire help for other positions because they just signed former Jets cornerback Lito Sheppard. With addition of Cook, the Vikings now have at least four cornerbacks available for the new season.

The Vikings made their second choice with running back Toby Gerhart from Stanford, adding back up to running back Adrian Peterson. Then they drafted defensive end, guard, linebacker, wide receiver, tight end and linebacker, but no quarterback, even though the return of Brett Favre seemed more intriguing than even. Fans and analysts got confused and tried hard to find explanations for what Vikings did. Well, they did manage to find one, that is, the team does not want much change at all. They seem confident that the starters leading them to 12-4 last season are able to lead them an even better season this season.

Vikings still have chance to pick QB Jimmy Clausen

When everyone was expecting the Minnesota Vikings to use their 30th overall draft pick to get former Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen, the team surprised us by trading the first-round pick and a fourth-round pick to NFC North rival Detroit Lions to get a second-rounder and fourth-round and seventh-round picks.

What happened next was nothing we ever expected previously. The Lions did not use the 30th overall pick to draft Clausen, either, but took California running back Jahvid Best instead. Then Tim Tebow became the 25th pick drafted by the Denver Broncos, and Clausen still stayed in the draft waiting for an interested team. However, by the end of Thursday night’s first-round draft, the quarterback remained undrafted and was set to enter the second-round draft.

On the other side, the Vikings now have nine picks over the final six rounds of the draft, including eh second pick of the second round. That means Clausen still has chance to put on Vikings jersey if the team does have plan to draft someone on Friday night. What makes it more possible, the holder of the first pick in second round, the St. Louis Rams, has already taken quarterback Sam Bradford with the first overall pick and they are unlikely to add another quarterback in second round. What is going to happen really depends on what the Vikings plan to do with their quarterbacks.

Vikings signed QB Jackson while waiting for Favre’s decision

Now the Minnesota Vikings are more confident with their quarterback plan for the 2010 season. While last season’s starting quarterback Brett Favre still needs more time to think about his playing status in the new season, the Vikings had backup quarterback Tarvaris Jackson sign his tender offer to remain in Vikings jersey.

Being a restricted free agent when this offseason began, Jackson received the tender offer worth $1.176 million from Vikings so that he could stay with the team as a backup quarterback for Favre, or even as starting quarterback if Favre eventually decides not to wear back his No. 4 jersey. But I guess Jackson would not have that high expectation this time to avoid the heavy disappointment he experienced last offseason when his starting job was taken away after Favre changed his retiring plan to join the Vikings.

As the day of 2010 draft is coming close, there is higher and higher expectation that Favre will make his final decision soon to end the speculations. However, as the Vikings have made it clear that their main targets in the draft would be cornerbacks and now they re-signed Jackson, it is just less necessary for Favre to make a fast decision. So while he is taking his time to enjoy family life, we could just take our time to make more guesses.

WR Harvin may wear back Vikings jersey late with migraine

While most of his teammates have been ready to wear back their Minnesota Vikings jerseys for the team’s voluntary offseason workout program on Monday, wide receiver Percy Harvin is struggling with lingering migraine headaches and is putting off his returning time.

Despite the annoying headache, Harvin still managed to have a breakout rookie season and missed only one game. He sat out practices a bit often but the team still offered enough support to the rookie since drafting him from last year’s first round as they already knew about the headache issue when they made the choice. Harvin did not fail them and had a productive season with 790 receiver yards and 6 touchdowns. He is also having a productive offseason somewhat by gaining some weight.

Although Harvin has visited a number of doctors, it still seems unlikely that he would have any chance to get rid of the migraine headaches. Following certain treatment plan could help reduce some pain, but Harvin said he is ready to have to bear it for a long time and try to contain it as much as he can. He did not give the exact time when he could return to join his teammates for the team’s offseason program, but he has been working out on his own, so it could be taken for sure that he will wear back his Vikings jersey in time for the new season.