NFL GridIron Gab Daily Digest

Panthers tight end Jeremy Shockey is confident that a labor deal will be reached without the loss of any regular season games, Joseph Person of the Charlotte Observer reports.

“Both sides want a deal. They want a football season. I know the players want a football season. I know the owners want a football season,” Shockey said. “We’ll come to an agreement. There’s not a doubt in mind that no games will be missed at all.”

Released by the Saints on February 22nd, Shockey signed a one-year deal with the Panthers on March 2nd.

A 2002 first-round pick (14th overall) out of the University of Miami by the New York Giants, Shockey has 510 receptions for 5,688 yards and 33 touchdowns during his nine-year career. By signing with the Panthers, Shockey reunites with first-year offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski, who coached tight ends coach and later coordinated the offense when Shockey was in Coral Gables.

“It’s really important for this lockout to end so we can start installation (of Chudzinski’s offense),” said Shockey. “But again, it’s not such a complex offense like coming from New York to the New Orleans Saints. Sean Payton’s offense is very complex.”

In an interview with NBC Washington by way of Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post, Redskins owner Dan Snyder says he doesn’t want to be involved in the football operation of his team.

Snyder said, "You know what's interesting is there's a little bit of a misperception here.When Joe Gibbs was here for over four seasons, nobody came to talk to me about football, and the same thing now. It was very similar between Mike Shanahan and Joe Gibbs, that they take command of the football team, and I love that.

"I mean, for me it's easy. I don't want to be involved. I enjoyed this draft probably more than any draft we had, because these guys worked so hard at preparation. It's very different than Vinny Cerrato, their structure, and I can tell you that I thought the trades and the moves that Bruce [Allen] made to accomplish what he accomplished was really remarkable. It was a great Redskin day, and I think people two or three years from now are gonna LOVE this draft."

A nonprofit group know as SportsFans.org has asked the FCC to waive the sports blackout rule, network non-duplication rules and syndicated exclusivity rules whenever a broadcast signal is taken down during a retransmission dispute so fans can still see the games.

"Sports fans have become a political football in retransmission consent disputes," the filing said. "In the recurring smack-down negotiations between big broadcasters and big pay-TV companies, games are pulled right before the action starts, leaving fans in the cold. Fans who are vital to the success of sports and who have contributed through multiple public and private expenditures are treated like fumbled pigskins."

In its filing Thursday, SportsFans.org pointed to several disputes, including the dispute between FOX and Cablevision that caused millions of fans in the New York City area to miss the first two games of the 2010 World Series.

"Take-downs of sports programming during retransmission consent disputes needlessly punish sports fans," the filing said. "The Commission can and should do something. It has ample authority to take a number of actions. American sports fans would cheer for a referee that puts them back in the game."

"The Commission has long treated sports programming as distinguishable from other types of programming, whether in the context of special rules, such as the sports blackout rule or merger conditions designed to prevent the anti-competitive hoarding of regional sports networks," the filing said. "In this proceeding, the Commission similarly can draw the line at using sports programming as a negotiating tool."

Considered by quarterback and team captain Drew Brees as “one of the best teammates” he’s ever had, Saints tight end and potential unrestricted free agent David Thomas hopes to remain with the franchise when the lockout ends.

“I would like to be back. And before the lockout, we had talked enough to where I’m pretty comfortable that they want me back. And hopefully as soon as we get all this other stuff worked out, then we’ll get something worked out,” said Thomas.

A third-round pick (86th overall) out of Texas by the New England Patriots, Thomas caught 21 passes for 261 yards and a touchdown his first three seasons in the league before the Saints traded a conditional 2011 draft pick (upgraded to a sixth-round, which New England traded to the Denver Broncos as part of the Laurence Maroney trade) to acquire him in September of 2009.

Thomas caught 35 passes for 356 yards and a touchdown during his first season with the Saints, earning a Super Bowl ring as the number two tight end behind Jeremy Shockey. Last year, Thomas caught 30 passes for 219 yards and a career-high two touchdowns.

2010 third-round pick Jimmy Graham is expected to take a feature role in the Saints’ offense now that Jeremy Shockey has been released, but is raw and could benefit from having a versatile veteran like Thomas as a mentor. As they did when he was denied unrestricted free agency by the rules governing the uncapped 2010 league year, the Saints placed a restricted free agent tender on Thomas before the lockout.

“He’s as competitive as the next guy, but you never outwardly see any kind of disgust or bad body language,” Brees said of Thomas. “He’s always positive. He’s always thinking about ‘how I can help the team, and when I’m called upon to make a play, I’m going to make it, whether it’s making the key block on a run play or a pass play or catching the ball down the field or whatever it might be.’

The mother of Buccaneers cornerback Aqib Talib admitted to police in an interview that it “could’ve been Aqib” who fired a handgun at his sister’s boyfriend during a domestic dispute in March near Dallas according to Rick Stroud of the St. Petersburg Times.

That information was part of a three-page arrest affidavit that a Dallas County grand jury used Friday to indict Talib and his mother on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Talib and his mother gave conflicting statements about how as many as five shots were fired during an altercation in the quiet Dallas suburb of Garland on March 21.

In an interview with detectives four days after the shooting, Okolo Talib, 58, may have provided police with the most incriminating evidence against her son. She said after Talib took the gun from her, “she did hear a shot and eventually admitted it could’ve been Aqib who shot,” according to the affidavit.

She also said that after Aqib “took the gun from her, he chased after Billings with the gun.”

Through his attorneys, Aqib Talib has denied the charges. In fact, he told police that he had left his 9mm handgun at his sister’s house a month or two earlier. He said he saw Billings with the weapon when he drove up to the brick house.