NFL GridIron Gab Daily Digest

After a porous performance in the pre season with a young pup waiting in the wings, it appears Derrick Ward is on the roster bubble for the first time of his career.

I watched the game and for lack of a better word, the guy sucked; 12 carries for 20 yards when you're one year removed from inking a four, year, $16 million deal is simply unacceptable.

This is only compounded by the fact the guy was supposed to shoulder the majority of the rushing load last season and only tallied one touchdown in 14 games while sporting a 3.6 YPC average.

In a league where an uber premium is put on young talent, it would not surprise me one bit to see the so-far impressive Kareem Huggins take his roster spot. Huggins had eight carries for 55 yards in contrast to the 0.6 YPC average of Ward.

The five-year gap in age along with the gap in salary could be compelling factors when deciding who to give their pink slip.

Despite the fact majority of cuts that occur during the pre season are raw rookies, plenty of veterans are shown the door before week one as well.

Last season running back Dominic Rhodes, a major contributor to the Colts Super Bowl win in 2007, was released last season by the Buffalo Bills during the pre-season.

The same could happen to Ward, who was a key element in the three-headed monster of a rushing attack the Giants employed en route to their 2007 Super Bowl season.

From key Super Bowl cog to castoff, maybe he should ask Plaxico Burress how to handle it.

We got a chance to check out the new release “Bigger Than the Game,” by Michael Weinreb, a very good new book about the players of the 1980’s that made the games as big as they are today. We also had a chance to ask Michael some questions about the book – which can be ordered by clicking HERE.

Here’s our interview with the books author Michael Weinreb:

1. What made you decide to write a book around the athletes of the 1980’s?

A couple of things: First off, those were my formative years, so for some reason all my memories of that era seem particularly sharp and full of emotion. But I think maybe there's a reason for that—I think the athletes of that era were the first to really embrace the camera and the spotlight. The rise of companies like ESPN and Nike allowed for a new kind of personality to arise, and so you had the '85 Bears, and you had Brian Bosworth, and you had Air Jordan and Bo Knows. It was all about excess, and there's nothing more fun than writing about excess. No one had really looked at the era through the lens of sports. So I guess I kind of wanted to write a sports-heavy version of Bonfire of the Vanities or Wall Street.

2. Was there a particular player of the 1980’s that caught your eye when writing the book?

There were several: Bo Jackson is a focal figure, in part because his story had never been told in-depth outside of his own autobiogrpahy, and also because he's such a fascinating character. There were a couple of years in the late '80s where Bo was the most famous athlete in the world, and he's probably the greatest pure athlete of the 20th century—at least, he was the first to do all these unbelievable things on camera. And he wanted to do it all, which is such a metaphor for the age; and then he got hurt and retire and just faded into mythology.

I also really enjoyed tracing the story of Jim McMahon, because he was essentially the catalyst of that '85 Bears team, which is one of those cultural moments we'd never witnessed before and probably won't ever witness again, because the ideas of sports marketing and imagery were just begining to be widely understood. And McMahon was just such an organic, authentic punk, who became a star because he fit into that MTV ethic.

3. Do you think the death of Len Bias woke up players in terms of drug use among athletes?

In a way, I suppose it did (as did the death of Don Rogers a week later). In a way, it woke up a lot of America, for better or for worse—Bias's death also caused a bit of an overreaction in terms of drug laws passed by the federal government and media perception of the crack epidemic. In terms of athletes, I think drug testing probably had a big impact, too, and just the end of cocaine as a glamor drug; but it did seem like Bias was another guy whose mythology—even though it's been exaggerated over the years, as I explore in the book—probably did affect an entire generation. Then again, steroid use started up around this same time, which raised a whole other ethical quandary. So there's always something.

4. How did ESPN change the way America looked at Pro and college Athletes?

Once SportsCenter started to hit its stride in the mid-80s, I think it changed a lot of things. It changed our perception of athletes, since we were able to see them on a daily basis; and it changed athletes perceptions of themselves, because they were now able to play toward the SportsCenter highlights and the nicknames and everything else. Without all this television exposure, sports would be completely different today. Athletes would behave differently. Fans would behave differently. It's addictive for athletes, and it's addictive for us. If someone told me they'd pay me several hundred thousand dollars to go back to watching one or two football games a week, I don't know if I could do it.

5. Did you have a favorite Athlete in the 1980’s? Did that opinion change after writing the book?

Well, I was a Penn State football fan, and I write about Penn State as kind of the polar opposite of everything that happened in that era. Specifically, a quarterback named John Shaffer, who lost only one game in his college career but was otherwise incredibly ordinary. Shaffer once hurt his shoulder giving a high-five. I kind of loved that as a contrast to, say, Brian Bosworth, whose whole schtick was about embracing excess.

I also loved Randall Cunningham, though I didn't get a chance to write about him. I think he and Bo Jackson both brought a style and verve to pro football that was almost unprecedented.

6. Now that you look back, what player do you think had the biggest impact on the 1980’s?

In the long term, it's Jordan. Everyone else is a distant second. But I do think that within the moment, Bo Jackson had a pretty huge impact on the future, too. I mean, his Tecmo Bowl character alone deserves a book.

It was a tough start for Eli Manning and the Giants to the 2010 season, as Manning was smacked in the Monday night preseason game with the Jets, and as you can see from the video, had just a wee bit of blood coming from his forehead.

With the sudden retirement of second year running back Glenn Coffee and the desire Brian Westbrook had to go to a contender; a perfect union has indeed been formed.

The San Francisco 49ers have signed the lifetime Philadelphia Eagle to a one year contract worth, $1.25 million guaranteed; Westbrook can double that money through incentive clauses.

The 30 year old pro bowler was being courted by several teams, most notably the St. Louis Rams, Denver Broncos, and Washington Redskins.

In 2007, he led the league with 2,104 yards from scrimmage.

Before his bouts with injury and the unavoidable tag of inevitably losing a step past the age of 30, Westbrook was considered one of the best all around backs in the league.

Behind one of the leagues best backs in Frank Gore, Westbrook will give the Niners a nice change of pace at the position with very savvy hands to aid them in the passing game.

Westbrook has 426 career receptions for 3,790 yards and 29 TD's.

A problem that plagued the Seahawks last year reared its ugly head once again.

According to 710 ESPN Seattle producer Liz Mathews, offensive tackle Ray Willis could miss the beginning of the regular season with a knee injury.

Willis started all 16 games last year for the Seahawks, something many of his teammates on the offensive line couldn’t lay claim to.  Injuries decimated the unit, leaving the team scrambling to fill holes.  Players signed off the street and the team’s practice squad toward the end of the season patched up an offensive line that let opposing defenses sack quarterback Matt Hasselbeck 44 times.

Can't get enough NFLGridironGab?  Follow SeahawksGab Editor Devon Heinen on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DevonHeinen.

The career of former Bills linebacker Aaron Schobel is over, as he is stating that he is retiring, saying he lost his hunger for playing last year.

He had been toying with the idea of playing with another team, and two teams that were reportedly in the mix were the Texans and Patriots.

The Bills released Schobel back on August 4th after nine seasons. Schobel was a two-time Pro Bowl selection and his 78 career sacks rank second in Buffalo history behind Hall of Famer Bruce Smith.

He told The Associated Press that he had been leaning toward retirement since the end of last season.

"I really didn't have a lot of fun playing last year," Schobel said. "The passion wasn't there, so it was time. I took as much time as I felt like I needed to make the decision, and I think I made the right one."

The 32-year-old said he felt retiring was still the right decision to make instead of forcing himself to play with another team like Houston or New England.

"The decision came down to whether I wanted to play," he said. "I didn't really feel like I wanted to do it. A lot of people probably think I'm crazy, but whenever you feel like it's time, it's time."

Schobel had four years left on a $50.5 million contract extension he signed with the Bills in 2007. It's a deal that included a $2 million roster bonus he was due March 1. Schobel did not receive that money, because the payment was due on the condition he passed a physical.

"It's always hard to pass up money, but there's more to life than that," Schobel said. "If I wanted to play, I felt like I still could've. But it was time."

Continuing to fuel Seattle’s competitive mindset under head coach Pete Caroll, the Seahawks acquired another former first-round draft choice.

According to a report by Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee, the Seahawks shipped a sixth-round pick to the San Francisco 49ers for 2008 first rounder Kentwan Balmer.

In two years in the National Football League, Balmer’s played in 27 games – all coming off the bench.  The defensive tackle out of North Carolina has 19 total tackles in that span without any sacks.

Can't get enough NFLGridironGab?  Follow SeahawksGab Editor Devon Heinen on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DevonHeinen.