In a way, football began today in Baltimore. The Ravens first day of their voluntary conditioning program kicked off at the Ravens facility in Owings Mills.
Though the word “voluntary” is in the name, fans often breathe a sigh of relief when their team’s stars show up happily to get in shape for the upcoming season. Unfortunately for Baltimore fans, that was not the case with Ray Rice, who has et to sign his $7.742 million franchise tender.
Rice tweeted on Monday morning, “To all college athletes getting ready to enter the NFL just remember the business side of the league is rough.”
It must be tough making $7 million to play a sport.
According to Aaron Wilson at the Carroll County Times, Joe Flacco, who is also seeking an extension, was at this morning’s workouts.
They will pay Flacco but not Rice…what a crock of $hit. I don’t care what the shelf life is for a RB. He is our best palyer and should be compensated as such. The 3 yr $25-28 million is not unreasonable.
Rice does not show in the playoffs,,,,,,,,,,he should take Foster money but he wants more , he is not worth it,,,,,,,,,,
Nails,
You are aware that the Ravens are $1.8 million under the salary cap BEFORE the draft, right? This team is now paying for the successful run they had the last four years, it’s simple football economics. The team has inked their uneasily replaceable players – Ngata, Suggs, etc. and now turns their attention to their QB. If we’ve learned one thing is this town, it ain’t easy to find a decent QB and Flacco is decent. The Ravens somehow opened a four year window rather than the one or two years they used to get under Billick. They hot a homerun with Rice and Ngata and to a lesser extent Flacco and enjoyed a decent run the last four years, but sooner or later the bills come due. I called this last year and am not surprised that Rice is not signed…they just can’t afford him unless they make some major overhauls. My money says they take a RB in the 2nd, 3rd round much like they have with Holmes and then Jamal Lewis later. You just can’t keep them all and like you said, RB is easy to replace, we’ve done it twice before.
MGW,
I will bet you and Spy a lunch at any place of your choosing, Ozzie does the right thing and signs Rice to a 3 year deal. They have always done the right thing in this town, well other than drafting Boller and signig Harbaugh and letting Irsay buy the team and letting Elway dictate his future and letting Unitas sign with San Diego and re-signing Ripken and the Glen Davis trade and the Albert Belle signing and Peter Angelos and the “little fella”…I’m just sayin’!
Davis and Belle were good deals that didn’t work out.