Now Available: The Best RB in Franchise History

The Jaguars did the sensible but cold-blooded thing today by releasing Fred Taylor, who would have cost five million on their cap to be the clear second choice behind Maurice Jones-Drew in a backfield that clearly didn't need a 33-year-old speed back, no matter how accomplished (and maybe even still competent) he might be.

Considering how badly the Jags struggled last year on chemistry issues it was a little surprising to axe their captain and longtime vet in cold February blood, but not quite... because, well, it's the NFL, the only sports league where being heartless about your veterans is usually a winning PR play, since so many people decide to spend the entire off-season pretending to be general managers.

Rejoicing in the news, of course, are Jones-Drew's fantasy owners, who now get to see what their treasured back does as the lead. The answer, in all likelihood, is get hurt and lose touches in the red zone, because there's a reason why smart teams go to committee and/or limit the touches of their main guy to involve a lot of screens and outside tosses... but why rain on their parade today? Clearly, J-D's on his way to Top 5 RB status. It just won't be on my team. (Oh, and J-D owners? Prepare to hate on Vulture Greg Jones. Big-time.)

As for Taylor, I suspect that he'll catch on with some team, for the simple reason that he's still a plus back, capable of doing more than running with the ball, and probably wants to go out with better than a 3.9 yards per carry mark that he was saddled with this year. Besides, the man wants to pass John Riggins on the all-time yards rushing list, and that's something every American can support.

Besides, for a guy with a 4.6 yards per carry average and 70 career touchdowns who was effective not very long ago (witness his '07 year), he's probably earned an ill-fitting jersey or two.

And if you really want to end it sadly, Fred, the Redskins could use a back-up.

Dumb Marketing

End of the weekend, time for The Truth to pay some bills. Go to DirecTV to find out what I owe and am presented with an ad for the all new NFL remotes. Ok, decent idea for the crazy NFL fan. Not sure I'd shell out 30 bones for a remote that doesn't do much more than my regular remote (from what I can tell it has a new light in the dark feature so I can see the buttons from the pitch black of the man cave). 30 bucks to have my team's logo in the middle of the remote. Whatever.

But two funny things caught my attention. On the first part of the offer in the upper right corner (you can click the photo on the top of this blog for a larger screen shot) it has a callout for "The Perfect Holiday Gift." Sure, I can see that - trying to find something perfect for that face painting, live and die for my favorite team NFL fan. However, when you click through that first page and get to the second page (shown on the left - again click for larger view) the last bullet reads "Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery." Unless the holiday they are referring to is MLK observance, you're out of luck.

But my favorite part of the features is the second part of this next line. "Each remote sports the colors and logo of an NFL team — plus, on the back, you get the team’s championship stats."

So if I'm a Saints fan, I'm looking at the back of a blank remote. Maybe it lists the the Super Bowl stats of those games played at the Super Dome. I don't know. And if you're remote is for a team like the 49'ers or Steelers - do you need a magnifying glass to read it?

Dumb marketing for dumb people.