NFL GridIron Gab Daily Digest

Concerns have been raised about potential injuries during the series of informal player workouts organized around the league. “Quite honestly, I’m waiting for the first ACL tear that happens and then we’ll see if anyone talks about how great this whole workout program is for these young guys,” an unnamed general manager told Sports Illustrated.

“Every club in a way wishes they were like the old Redskins and had all 80 guys out there working together, but as soon as a prominent player pops an ACL in some high school gym or at some college, what’s going to be the reaction? If someone breaks a leg, who’s there to help? As a GM, the thing that makes me nervous is the what-ifs that could happen without supervision, specifically from a training standpoint.

“I just think the potential downside outweighs the benefit. I know that’s probably not conventional thinking, considering the Redskins won two championships off this kind of thing. But the athletes today, with the conditioning they have, it’s not like it used to be when players had to come to training camp to get into shape. So to sit here and think it’s going to give someone an edge, I don’t know. Let someone lose their quarterback for eight months because he slipped and hurt something, be it a Drew Brees, a Tom Brady or a Peyton Manning, then we’ll see how fast these camps continue.”

Meanwhile, an agent said he has told his players to be cautious and not work out with teammates for fear of a non-football injury causing the player to lose out on millions of dollars.

DeMaurice Smith, head of the NFL Players Association, is prepared to take the NFL lockout battle to the bitter end. Smith was on the Boomer & Carton show on WFAN in New York

"We went to the mattresses the day that we decertified," Smith said Friday morning. "Not because we wanted to, because they made us do it."

With the lockout dragging into a third month, players asked a federal judge Thursday to make $4 billion in disputed broadcast revenue off limits to the league and to award them at least $707 million in damages, too.

The damages award alone could amount to a huge piece of leverage for the players in their fight with the NFL over the next collective bargaining agreement.

"The players understand the fight that they're in," said Smith. "Right now they don't want to lay down and be forced to take a deal. They don't believe that it's fair. I can tell you that they resent being lied to. They resent being tricked. They resent the fact that the league has been found now twice to have violated the law. So those are the people that we're inextricably tied to."

"I can tell you every player wants to play football," he said. "We've got our guys working out by themselves. You've got guys down in New Orleans where Drew (Brees) brought his guys together and paid their way so that they can practice. These guys are going and keeping themselves in shape for nothing at a time where, for the first time in history, a business has actually sued not to do their business.”

"So while our guys are probably a little edgy, to use a soft word, they want to get back to enjoying their game."

All seven members of the Nevada Supreme Court will consider the change-of-venue request in the lawsuit accusing Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger of sexual assault in a Lake Tahoe hotel in 2008 according to Dan Majors of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

In an order handed down in Carson City this week, Chief Justice Michael L. Douglas said the full court will determine whether the case will be tried in Reno, wher Roethlisberger’s accuser filed suit, or in Lake Tahoe, where she says the incident occurred.

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NFL.com writer Steve Wyche reports that the Vikings are not going to go after soon to be former Titans QB Vince Young. The report says that while despite the fact Young and Vikings back Adrian Peterson have been working out together in the Houston area, the team would rather go in a different direction at the QB spot.

Currently the Vikings have Florida State’s Christian Ponder, who the team took with the 12th overall pick, and the club will also look long and hard at the veteran free agent QB’s that may be floating around the market.

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Mike Jones of the Washington Post says the Redskins backfield will clearly look different in 2011 as the team parted ways with veteran running back Clinton Portis in March and drafted rookies Roy Helu from Nebraska and Evan Royster from Penn State.

Ryan Torain led the team with 742 yards and four touchdowns, but he missed four games with a hamstring injury. There are concerns about his durability. In three seasons, he has yet to play a full 16 games.

Shanahan is high on both Helu and Royster and states they will both be in the mix for the starting job. Helu is a speedster capable of hitting a crease and taking off. Royster has a fluid running motion, and Shanahan said he found himself rewinding film over and over to figure out how the Northern Virginia product was able to amass so many yards with such ease. Shanahan compared Helu to a young Portis and Royster to Terrell Davis.

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Boxer Bernard Hopkins has not stopped taking jabs at current Redskins QB Donovan McNabb.

Hopkins, the former middleweight champion, has repeatedly bashed McNabb for years for a variety of perceived grievances. Hopkins says McNabb, the former Eagles quarterback, doesn’t have heart or wasn’t tough like other NFL players because he had a privileged upbringing.

McNabb and his agent have decided to counterpunch. Agent Fletcher Smith released a statement Thursday that says Hopkins’ insinuations about McNabb not being black enough “are dangerous and irresponsible.”

At a workout this week for his upcoming fight, Hopkins said McNabb has “got a suntan. That’s all.”

Ron Springs the retired Cowboys running back, died Thursday afternoon at Medical City Dallas Hospital, where he had been since lapsing into a coma in October 2007 after undergoing a procedure to remove a cyst. He was 54.

Less than eight months before he lost consciousness, Springs made national headlines when he received one of former teammate Everson Walls' kidneys in a transplant. Springs had been ravaged by diabetes, and his right foot was amputated in 2005. Walls could not bear to see his friend and former colleague continue to suffer.

The transplant marked the first time a former U.S. professional athlete received an organ from a teammate. The surgery went perfectly. The story of a teammate's sacrifice attracted as much attention as anything Springs ever did on the field and earned much needed publicity for organ donation awareness.

Springs, who was born and raised in Williamsburg, Va., and played at Ohio State, was selected by the Cowboys in the fifth round of the 1979 draft. He spent six seasons with the team before ending his eight-year career with Tampa Bay.

Springs is survived by his wife Adriane; Shawn, his son from another marriage; his daughter Ayra; and daughter Ashley.

NFL Gridiron Gab Draft expert Abe Munch goes team by team into the 2011 NFL Draft, and breaks down all the picks as well as goes in-depth with Best Selection, Sleeper and a Final Grade. Today we take a look at the AFC South. Click the links below to see the breakdown of the Jaguars, Texans, Titans and Colts.

Jaguars Gab Grades the Teams Picks in the 2011 Draft
Texans Gab Grades the Teams Picks in the 2011 Draft
Titans Gab Grades the Teams Picks in the 2011 Draft
Colts Gab Grades the Teams Picks in the 2011 Draft

Maybe the greatest position of need on the Steelers heading into 2011 is that of cornerback. The team will enter free agency (whenever that may be) with starters Ike Taylor and William Gay both eligible to hit the open market.

It is starting to sound more and more like Taylor, who is the more desired of the two free agents, is preparing to ink a deal with the Steelers once he can.

The 31-year-old CB, who has been a Steeler since being drafted, told Scott Brown of the Tribune-Review that Pittsburgh is home, and he is looking to wear black and gold for life.

"I've been in Pittsburgh longer than any other city since I was born," said Taylor. "That's home to me. Steelers Nation is crazy. You're going to find a Steelers fan at some bar, some mall, some college (anywhere). As a professional player you thrive off that. I'm pretty sure we're on the same page. The ball's in their court."

The team doesn’t have a lot of quality depth at the corner spot, and there was some surprise that the club didn’t target a corner earlier in the draft. They did take Curtis Brown from Texas in round three, but he will have a long learning curve before he’s expected to make a big impact on the team.

That makes the signing eventually of Taylor all the more important. From the sounds of it, he wants to stay a Steeler, and now when the league gets back to business it will be up to the Steelers and Taylor’s agent to get to work to make a deal happen.