Dashon Goldson In Bengals Strips???

I'm sure everybody has heard the story of the Dashon Goldson on XM radio yesterday expressing his interest in coming to CincinnatI. If you have not heard Goldson Said “I like those guys down there. I went to school with Reggie Nelson, played with Nate Clements, I was here with Taylor Mays and Manny Lawson so I’m familiar with some of those guys and how they play. They’ve got a good football team down there. They’re on track and they’ve got a good quarterback and receivers. I will have to consider all my options and we’ll have to see whose interested in me.” I can find many fans whose against this, I think we all know that he'll be a great fit here, filling a spot that's not only a need but that we also have struggled to get consistency from. he's also Marvin Lewis type of Safety, you ever wonder why Taylor Mays is still here? It's because of his size and physical abilities, Goldson not only have the sizes and the same physical capabilities but also can cover, Something thing Taylor can't do. It's rumored that Goldson will expect at least 8,000,000 per year. What a lot of people missed, was he expressed a lot of interest in returning to San Francisco, Goldson called the place home and said he really hopes something works out. So how likely are we to land him? First things first we gotta figure out if he's going back, if that doesn't happen, I think it is almost a certainty that he will be here. He's worth that dollar amount, he's a huge upgrade, and fits in perfectly with are young defense. Ironically he shares agents with another guy we will be making a decision on, Andre Smith.

Andre Smith Wants $9M Per.

Cincinnati Bengals right tackle Andre Smith is looking for $9 million per year on the open market, ProFootballTalk reported. The Cincinnati Enquirer's Joe Reedy talked to agents and contract advisers at the NFL Scouting Combine and feels Smith will command a deal in the $8.5 to $9.5 million per year range. At just 26 years old, Smith will get it. The Bengals used the franchise tag on defensive end Michael Johnson and have the most cap room in the league ($55.5 million). The team has invested in the offensive line with Pro Bowl left tackle Andrew Whitworth and center Kyle Cook locked down. Smith would provide stability amongst the group for years to come. It'll cost the Bengals to keep Smith, but it's normally wise to invest in a young talented tackle. Especially with a young offensive corps led quarterback Andy Dalton and wide receiver A.J. Green. My personal opinion is it would be a waste of money for the Bengals to sign this guy long term, it will be a bigger mistake then the decision to take him 6th overall. Andre Smith is a guy who plays when he want to and that's a guy you don't want on your football team. He came into the league as damage goods, we were only able to get 5 games out of him in 2 years, then his club option was declined, he woke up and realize that he was in a contract year and decide to play quality football. I think the Bengals need to let this guy go, and sign a new Tackle or even draft one. You sign him long term and I'm willing to bet a year's salary, that the injuries will all of a sudden re-appear and you will see him more outside the lines then you will on the field. Without him where do we go??? The draft class at tackle is deep and a guy like D.J. Fluker or Lane Johnson should be available when the Bengals go on the clock at No. 21. Most people I talk to wants the Bengals to bring Smith back, and I think it based of the, "What have you done for me lately?" theory, but this is a case where I think it will bite us in the back side. I understand we have other needs and don't necessarily need to add another one, but with four picks in the first three rounds it wouldn't be the worst thing. This draft is not the deepest, as far as 1st round talent goes, in the positions we need (safety, linebacker, running back). I think at pick 21 trying to fill any of these needs will be stretching for a player, which is why my initial feeling was for them to trade back and add a rd 2 or 3 draft pick to the pot, but with the uncertainty on rather we will sign this dude back changes that a little bit. What I hope the Bengals can do is bring in one the big name free agents thats available, with all the cap space we have, I don't mind them spending money on a quality free agent that you know what your going to get every Sunday. Guys like a Jake Long, Branden Albert of the Kansas City Chiefs may also become a free agent if the two sides can't come to terms. Albert was a first round pick in 2008 and has played very well, certainly well enough to draw multiple suitors and ultimately a large contract. Long, who may earn somewhere in the $12 million per year range is The former No. 1 overall pick, he has been a stud his entire career, perhaps the best left tackle in football along with Rival Joe Thomas of the Cleveland Browns. Cincinnati we have a great opportunity to be really good for a long time, we have some pieces that need to be replace and with the most money to spend at 54mil, letting guys like this walk shouldn't be an issue, I believe Andre and his agent knows they won't be able to get this much money per yr from anyone, they set this high amount hoping to settle for 5 or 6mil per, and I personally feel that's too much as well. According to SI's Peter King, several NFL teams are afraid of paying Smith a big signing bonus: "I think Cincinnati tackle Andre Smith should come with a warning label. Something like, "Huge money is hazardous to this player's greatness." Talked to several teams scared of Smith. They remember his weight problems early in his Cincinnati tenure, and they fear what a big signing bonus would do to his desire."- Peter King The way I see this playing out is Smith having a rude financial awakening, the Bengals declined that options for good reasons, a guy who struggled staying on the field his first year, a guy who can't control his weight, which made the Bengals clause his rookie deal, and not to mention the arrest back in January for bring a gun to an airport. Andre Smith is probably the biggest gamble this off season and the Bengals know that and it's a gamble I don't see them taking even though they have the most money to spend.

How Can We Stay FIt As Parents

A few generations ago, men routinely became fathers in their early to mid-20s (on purpose). This meant that, by age 35, the average guy may already have had a teenage son, and that just at the moment when his body started showing signs of aging (slight aches, longer recovery after a basketball game, full-day hangovers), the heavy lifting with the children was almost done. This left your typical man in the middle of the last century with little to do physically after age 40 but take care of his own body (and back then, that meant smoking a carton of Marlboro Reds a week). Cut to today, when couples are delaying having kids until later and later, and what do you have? A generation of men burping babies in bodies better suited for coaching Babe Ruth Prep. Biologically, chasing toddlers and chasing fly balls is a young man's game, not something nature intended men in their late 30s and early 40s to do. At an age when many athletes retire from their sports (see: Barry Sanders, 31, or Rocky Marciano, 32), men today are just starting to think about having kids. It's the perfect storm for poor health: more responsibility and stress, less time to exercise, easier access and desire for crappy foods, the instinctual impulse to put the well being of your child and wife above your own, and so on. This leaves us with millions of men having kids at the tail end of their physical peak, putting on hold the one thing that will keep them feeling younger for longer -- a healthy lifestyle. In order to avoid packing on the paternal pounds, you need a blueprint to maximize your minutes during the craziest time of your life. Here's a start: 1) Open Your Mind Trying to squeeze in a block of time to exercise on a day-to-day basis for the first half-year of your baby's life will just turn into a stress-inducing mess. Each day will be an exercise in futility, leaving you feeling rushed, annoyed and frustrated. With the right plan and the right mindset, you can eliminate this from happening. How can you do that? Your first order of business is to realize that your standard model for working out (dedicating a solid half hour, hour or more a day to hit the gym or play sports) isn't the only way, or even the best way, to stay in shape. In fact, this regimented style is a result of our modern workweek and society. Humans didn't evolve to exercise one hour of the day and then sit on our asses the other 23. For 98% of our history, we were on our feet, out and about, all day, every day, until we went to bed. Keep this in mind as you read the next few strategies. 2) Burn Calories, Not Minutes Unless you've had an efficiency expert follow you around, you have no idea how many calories you burn throughout the day. Since time is of the essence when you're a new dad, you're going to have to learn to fit your workout around your daily activities. No more leaning against the counter while something is in the microwave. No more staring at your oddly patterned chest hair while you're waiting for the water to heat up in the shower. If you can't block out the half hour or more you used to spend at the gym four or five times a week, those moments we just mentioned need to be maximized. Do 20 body squats while the frozen breast milk is warming up. Try and do 50 pushups before the water gets hot in the shower. You literally waste dozens of minutes a day that can be used to crank out a quick 30-second or one-minute workout. If you take advantage of those minutes every day, you'll be amazed at how much exercise you can squeeze in without changing your schedule one bit. 3) Unleash the Unconventional The No. 1 thing new parents complain about is the sudden lack of quality (or any) sleep. Unfortunately, you need sleep, so you can't cheat your body for too long. You might try to be Rambo and hit the gym on four hours of sleep with a 5-Hour Energy for a day or two, but the first morning you do that, your infant will decide that very night to show you what the word "colic" really means. Newborns can't talk or walk or do much of anything, but they have a remarkable ability to stage a crying marathon on the exact evenings that you would kill for some shuteye. When this happens, you will invariably try to steal some extra sleep in the morning, with the plan of heading to the gym on the way home from work. If this is your plan, forget it. It is a certainty that at least three things will come up to keep you from going. Since this is the case, you need to turn activities you will do anyway into exercises. For instance, every time you put your kid in the car seat, knock out a set of 20 car-seat curls with each arm. As long as you go slow, don't worry about harming your kid. The seat was meant to withstand a car crash; it should be able to handle your curls (as long as you don't drop it). Another idea is to perform lunges as you burp your kid. The movement will help move things around in their belly, and the lunges with a few extra pounds of body weight will be good for your legs and core. That's just the beginning. There are plenty of other ways to take everyday parental chores and turn them into muscle builders. 4) Eat Smart Kid food is awesome. Chicken nuggets, fruit treats, yogurt treats, chocolate milk. It's all good. Quick tip: Let the kids eat it. They are calorie incinerators at their young ages, and you, sadly, are not. Try and avoid as much of their leftovers as you can. And, yes, you will be too tired to cook on most nights and you'll rely on stuff you maybe haven't eaten in years -- fast food, microwaveable dinners, takeout places you recently discovered. But having a kid isn't an excuse to eat like a college freshman again. There's a zillion diets you can follow, but try to stick to this simple plan: No fried foods, no white carbs, no soda or fruit juices, chicken or fish instead of red meat, double vegetables instead of an appetizer, and desserts only on the weekend. That should keep you on the right path. This here is just a blueprint how to take parenting and and still find ways to do what it is you need to do, so that you will be just a versatile and active when the time come that your little kid get into his or her own sports and activities. As parents we just have to find a way to make it to that time, once we get there it becomes easy cause our kids are less dependent. As for anybody who don't know I have a kid that just over 1 years old, and life has took a dramatic change for me as a full time dad. There is so much I used to be able to do, that I'm just not able to do now, including hit the gym as much as I did. When creating this post, I had to take the typical 9-5 dad into account, but you can take this and implement your own schedule. For me that meant joining 24-hour gym and going to the gym at the crack of don 4 and 5am before my son was woke, or before I got him at 7am. Most of the time that means I'm sacrificing quality sleep hours, which I mentioned above is critical, but come on, let's be real parent=ultimate sacrifice especially when we talking about infants. So parents, not just dads, take this and use it, or come up with your own idea to stay in somewhat decent shape, we have to be the change we want to see and let's reduce the obesity rate that plagues America. Your kids will thank you, you'll thank yourself, your physician will thank you and most importantly your own body will thank you, What do you have to lose?

Diversity In NFL Leadership Positions, Or The Lack There Of

I was tuning into the latest episode of Bryant Gumbel, when his infamous commentary lead me to speak about an issue that is unseen, and UN-discussed in a business that is literally bigger than life, that is the NFL. That issue being the job opportunities that are given to men of color. The league is 68% black on the rosters, but we're talking about beyond the rosters today. This off-season there was 15 job vacancies in the NFL just in the ranks of head coaches and general managers, not one was filled by a man or woman of color. Many blow it off as if it's not really a big deal, but sitting before you as someone who has future ambitions to become a coach on the highest level one day, it's a HUGE deal. This isn't a problem that just came about in the NFL, it's an on going issue that really has no sign of turning around or getting better. The NFL league office is not in the dark about the situation, they are actually very aware.In the wake of no minority hirings to fill eight head coaching and seven general management vacancies following the conclusion of the 2012 NFL regular season, NFL Executive Vice president of Human Resources Robert Gulliver stated, "While there has been full compliance with the interview requirements of the Rooney Rule and we wish the new head coaches and general managers much success, the hiring results this year have been unexpected and reflect a disappointing lack of diversity. The true question is do they care? Commissioner Roger Goodell has been asked about this on numerous occasions. Most recently he stated how sorry and disappointed he is about the results of the most recent 15 hires, but is an apology enough? They have made an effort to change thing by implementing what we know as the Rooney rule.The rule for which was established to ensure that minority coaches, especially African Americans, were considered for high-level coaching positions. But has it work? Has it had an impact? Since the Rooney Rule was established in 2003, several NFL franchises have hired African American head coaches, at the start of 2006 season, the overall percentage of African American coaches had jumped to 22%, up from 6% prior to the Rooney Rule. However, that number and percentage has declined each of the last 3 years which lead many to believe and ask, Is the Rooney rule broken? Coach Tony Dungy said about the topic, "I know the concept is good and something we need to do, Obviously, it's not working the way it should." Herm Edwards, former coach of the New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs and now an ESPN analyst, has called for not only revising the rule but perhaps even changing its name. "When you use the Rooney Rule and not correctly, you put a little bit of a bad mark on Mr. Rooney's name, and that is not good," Edwards said. "If it keeps going this way, we might need to take his name off the rule. It is not being used in the right manner that Mr. Rooney meant it to be." In the last three years, there has been 21 Job vacancy's none filled by people of color, so obviously regardless of race the owner are making the wrong decisions anyways. When we take all the factual information into hand, it makes you wonder what needs to be done, and what could be done to fix this problem. It's pretty clear that the rule needs to be tweak or revamped somehow. The Rooney Rule requires National Football League teams to interview minority candidates for head coaching and senior football operation jobs, keyword being INTERVIEW. I don't think we can make it to where we tell these owner who they must hire to operate in their business, but many wonder if they only interview the candidate just to follow the rule, that I can't answer but I know this, the NFL better do something about it and soon, because your starting to hear the whispers of legal actions being taken, and from the outside looking in that is a battle and a war the NFL has not a fighting chance in!

The women in our lives may not look like the women in our fantasies - and that's ultimately a good thing.

****Editor: askmen.com's Ian Lang**** I was poking around the internet this past week, as I'm wont to do, when I noticed some celebs making more than their typical fuss about the ever-contentious issue of body image. Amid heated discussion over her weight gain, Lady Gaga posted near-nude photos with the caption, “I’ve struggled with bulimia my whole life." “News” broke that Jessica Simpson has approached two doctors for lap-band surgery, proving that Weight Watchers can make poorer investment decisions than Lehman Brothers. And, just today, I saw that Christina Aguilera declared herself pop music’s once and future fat girl, this most likely being due to Adele being a successful fat girl and Xtina having a shaky grasp on the concepts of cause and effect. My point being, I was thinking a lot about the female body, but not in the way I usually do when I’m home alone and bored. Body image is a complicated thing, but discussions on it, by and large, exclude men. We certainly feel pressures of our own, whether they be real or imagined. Just look at that shirtless action star of the moment. Now look at yourself. Now look at him. Now look at yourself. Rinse, lather and repeat until the tears start flowing. Regardless, the effect of the media’s portrayal and apparent control over the ideal female form affects us in very real ways, even if we are excluded from the conversation. We’re supposed to decry the entertainment industry’s penchant for models with unrealistic proportions, but we can't deny that Marisa Miller is truly some grade-A boner material. The conundrum for us men is how to negotiate between reality and the media's fantasies. While I doubt many of us can recall exactly when, where or how we first laid eyes upon the nude female form, I'm sure we can all remember the feelings it... um… inspired. For some readers, the old tropes of stumbling upon dad’s stash or a quasi-well-intentioned older brother likely ring true. For guys my age and younger, the internet probably played a large role. I’m sure many a man under 30 has fond memories of hastily attempting to download some tasteful nude over a 36.6k connection, while anxiously listening out for their parents' footsteps. I distinctly remember my own attempts at saving a particular shot of Ginger Spice (shut up, it was the '90s), who, as the slowly loading picture arduously revealed, is not really a ginger at all. Regardless, chances are, whatever you were able to get your hands on was hardly an accurate representation of reality: over-airbrushed centerfold spreads, genetic-freak models with comic-book proportions or even past-their-prime porn stars precariously posed and contorted to avoid unflattering angles. Either way, whatever we saw as younger men had a direct influence on the mental schemas we formed of the female body: bubble butts and buxom breasts most likely being de rigueur. Fast-forward an indeterminate number of years, depending on how “cool” you were, and sooner or later you achieved what I'm sure many of us had imagined to be our sole reason for existence: seeing and perhaps even touching a real, live naked girl. Some of you were probably making awkward attempts at getting fresh well before you could drive, which, besides creeping me the hell out as an adult, makes me totally understand why fathers are so protective of their young daughters. For the bulk of us, though, those first glimpses of bona fide nakedness happened later in high school, or maybe earlier in college for us wallflowers (shy people, not the band, although maybe them too -- who knows?). And the results were… disappointing? I shouldn’t say that, because, let’s be honest, you were stoked. But, still, some things were apparent: not every girl has gigantic, perfect breasts, and the breasts they do have don’t usually stay perfectly heaped up like a couple of airbags. It turns out that, just like us, girls have moles, zits and blemishes. Making out in the back of a car or other teenage-approved locations often led to interesting positions that created lumps and rolls in even the fittest of bodies. And, boy, were we ever wrong about that “vagina” thing. We were all like, "OH GOD, WHAT IS THAT? There’s hair and lots of skin and what exactly am I supposed to be doing with it?" Needless to say, the need to separate our youthful fantasies from the realities of real, live, breathing women often presented itself in an abrupt and at times traumatizing manner. I think the reason I find the disparity between the real and imagined so particularly interesting is that the media has consistently conjured up images capable of making a normal young woman just seem “meh.” I mean, Marisa Miller is a real, live person, who, by all accounts, looks exactly the way you think she does. But she just happens to have genes that are, quite literally, one in a million. As we men grow older and start to suss out the real vs. the imagined, we figure out what’s a reasonable expectation and what's a genetic anomaly or Photoshop wizardry. As the novelty of naked flesh wanes, we’re not blinded by every set of jugs or flash of bare leg that crosses our path. As we gain more experience, we learn that it's a lot more about the person attached to those not-as-big-as-I-thought-they-were boobs than it is about the boobs themselves. As we reach adulthood, we start to look at Victoria’s Secret models the way we do concept cars -- secretly, and in another city, so our wives don’t know… I'm kidding. We see them as visions, as escapism, as a queer, somewhat twisted depiction of an ideal. We may like the thought of getting behind the wheel and taking them for a quick spin, but we sure as hell wouldn’t want to own them. I fear a bit for the fate of today's young men. Given the ease of access and incredible proliferation of internet pornography, its tough to get away from this artificial reality. It's not just the acts being depicted, but the images themselves. The stuff that’s out there today is a far cry from the low-res, slow-loading images of Geri Halliwell I used to ogle. My fear is that such depictions could potentially take hold of, and irreparably distort, one's perceptions of what a real woman looks like. If that happens, men are going to be involved in the body image debate in a way we never imagined. I fear for that. But then I remember how it only really takes one awkward and embarrassingly short-lived romp in the back of her dad’s SUV to bring the average teenage boy crashing back down to reality.

The NFL and NFLRA Finally Reach Agreement

The NFL and the NFL Referees Association reached an agreement late Wednesday night to end the referee lockout, the league confirmed. NFL Network, citing a league source, reports the two sides agreed to a new developmental program, rather than adding 21 officials to current pool of 121 NFLRA officials. The pool of money for the current officials, according to the report, will remain the same.

Maualuga and Richardson Sparking The Flame for The Ohio Cup Part 1

This weekend is the first round of the battle of Ohio between our Cincinnati Bengals and the Cleveland Browns. For the most part this game has been everything but a battle, it been lopsided in the Bengals favorite. However, this is still a battle and it still a rivalry even though the two team in the battle struggle to even be relevant on a consistent basis. The game this Sunday has yet to sell out, probably won't and fans honestly don't have much to look forward to except, one of these team will get in the win column and take part 1 of a 2 part battle for the Ohio cup. Two players decide they wanted to spark a flame and heat the rivalry up a little bit, those two guys benn Bengals linebacker Rey Maualuga and Cleveland Browns top pic Trent Richardson. Maualuga stated early this week after watching film, " “He can run you over and you can miss a tackle, at the same time, from what we’ve seen he didn’t do nothing spectacular,” Maualuga said, via CBSSports.com. “From running screens, missing passes, trying to find a hole when he’s running the ball. He just didn’t do anything spectacular from what I’ve seen. I’m pretty sure he’s going to want to get after it once he plays us.” The comments made their way to Richardson, who told Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer that they were “very encouraging.”

“When somebody wants to talk mess, I mean, hey, that’s them. I let my game speak for

itself, so if they want to see how mad I am, or how upset they got me about the comment, you’ll see Sunday,” Richardson said. The funny thing about all this to me is, neither one of these guys should be saying anything. Not only did both their teams take an L this past week, but they both played horribly. Maualuga played by far his worst game in his Bengal career, getting pancaked and at times simply looking like he was ducking and dodging Ray Rice. Richardson had a fairly disappointing debut performance against the Eagles with 39 yards on 19 carries. The highlight of his day was when he ran over the top of Eagles safety Kurt Coleman, knocking his helmet off and 5 yards backwards. Which is probably the reason this story got as much attention as it did. I know I hope the time come, in this weekend game, where they meet in the gap and Maualuaga is the only thing between Richardson and his first career touchdown. I guess the real question is, who would you put your money on if that the opportunity present itself, or if that scenario actually come true?!?!?!? John G. Dunn II jgdunn.blogspot.com