I bet you thought the NFL season started in mid-July with training camp, no ma’am, and no sir, it started three weeks ago on March 5^th. There are no players on the practice fields. There are no coaches meetings in the club house. Only the field of negotiation is open for business.  Agents are working hard to get the best deal for their clients, some of their clients are high profile, and some are under the radar of the free agency market.

2010 is the “Final League Year” an uncapped season, which means owners, can spend as much moola as they want on available unrestricted free agents, but from what I have read in the past two weeks, some teams are taking advantage of the word uncapped and are going after those unrestricted free agent gems, like my Chicago Bears, shelling out $121 million, including $55 million guaranteed, for three top notch free agents, Julius Peppers, Chester Taylor and Brandon Manumaleuna. And other teams are tightening up their uncapped belts, with the assumption of an uncertain 2011 season. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are doing a wait and see, let’s see what we can get in the draft mambo. 

 “United We Stand”

 The NFL Annual Meeting took place on March 21^st thru March 24^th, from an article in the Boston Globe the Patriots’ owner, Robert Kraft was quoted saying “Probably the most important thing with this league meeting that’s different than other years is that we continue to have a very united ownership…We have a great sport, and we have to be smart enough to allow the league to grow for the players and the fans.” It seems to me he wants to make sure us little guys, the FANS, are part of the NFL equation. And that the owners are finally understanding that unity is the key.

In a press conference, Roger Goodell stated, “The quality of the game is outstanding and the interest of the game is outstanding.” He spoke about putting the game first and fans first. Hey Roger! I’m for shorten the preseason and extending the regular season.  GIVE ME MORE FOOTBALL.

 Modifying Sudden-Death

Like many NFL fans, I am a supporter of changing the overtime format. It took this year’s Super Bowl overtime win by the New Orleans Saints for the owners to take a look at changing the sudden-death overtime format.  Finally on, Tuesday the NFL owners voted 28-4 to modify sudden-death for the playoffs. “Statistically, it needed to change. It wasn’t producing the ‘fairest results.’”, states Atlanta Falcons president Rich McKay, co-chairman of the competition committee. Now, I didn’t study statistics but I, and many others, could see that the game was tilting significantly in favor of the team winning the coin toss, way before Super Bowl XLIV.

A NFL fact, before 1994, 34.4 percent of the time teams winning the coin toss won the game. After 1994 and since kickoffs were moved back 5 yards to the 30, 59.8 percent of the time teams winning the coin toss won the game. Wow, what an increase!

I would like to see the modify sudden-death applied to the regular season games, too. Well, it’s a start in the right direction. We all had to crawl before we walked.

By Donni Coley

 Have you ever been so excited, so proud of a moment that you were lost for words, well that happen to me last Friday, great news had spread that a woman was selected to be the head coach of a varsity high school football team. I found this out from my many friends on facebook, the news spread rapidly throughout the community of women football players and supporters. My jaws dropped. I felt proud. I clenched my fist like Tiger Woods and softly yelled, YES!

 Calvin Coolidge Senior High School in Washington, D.C. made the historic move to hire Natalie Randolph as the head coach of their varsity football program.

 Congratulations to Natalie Randolph!

 After reading, then hearing the news I started struggling between writing about this remarkable occasion and the collective bargaining agreement in the NFL. Actually, I didn’t struggle long; I felt I should write something. How many times in my life would I get the opportunity to write about something herstoric, but what can I write that hasn’t already been written. So, I tackled with the idea for three days, which is why my blog is coming out today, instead of last Wednesday.

 It came to me after waking up from a slumber sleep Thursday morning, write about how proud I am that a woman FINALLYgets the chance to crack the glass ceiling of the tightest male dominated fraternity-football.

 Credibility is always an issue when women penetrate the womb of the so called man’s world. But, from what I’ve read Natalie’s experience speaks loud and clear. She played football for five-years as a wide receiver for the D.C. Divas of the Independent Women’s Football League. And she was the wide receiver coach for Washington’s H.D. Woodson High School in 2006 and 2007.

 At her press conference on Friday, March 12^th, she commented, “While I am proud to be part of what this all means, being female has nothing to do with it. I love football, I love football. I love teaching. I love these kids.”

 There is talk about not wanting to be the first male head coach to lose to a woman head coach this upcoming season in D.C. All I can say is, in football there is a team that wins and there is a team that loses, and if it that winning team head coach happens to be a woman, take it like gentlemen.

 COACHING FOOTBALL IS TOUGH ENOUGH FOR A MAN, BUT MADE FOR A WOMAN TOO.

March 5^th was the start of the free agency period. What is the hoopla all about?

Well, 2010 is an uncapped season for the National Football League, which means no salary cap for the 32 teams. Is there going to be a George Steinbrenner of the NFL this year?

Because of this uncapped season the minimum service time jumped from four to six years. So, restricted free agents looking to leave the nest will have to stay home with papa bird for another two years or an additional year, unless the big bird is willing to give up a draft pick of equal level of compensation.

Restricted free agents last season had more flexibility to move from one team to another, so at the beginning of the 2009 Bears’ season I was excited about the acquisition of quarterback Jay Cutler. But by the end of the season I was asking, “WHAT WAS THE FRONT OFFICE THINKING?”

But now, my Chicago Bears will have the scent of a new car this season. The team has made some moves on the first few days of free agency, not wasting any time and willing to shell out the big bucks, in the tune of 91.5 million, for the top restricted free agent defensive tackle Julius Peppers, along with signing running back Chester Taylor and tight end Brandon Manumaleuna. The hiring of Mike Martz as the new offensive coordinator at the end of the NFL season makes me peck two keys at a time, the Bears offense and defense maybe baaaaaack. I love the smell of a new car.

How will free agency pan out for the other 31 teams? I don’t know. I will be watching Sports Center in the days and weeks to come. But, I have to tell you, I’m bias. I am only concern about my own team, the BEARS.

Woo…I finished writing this week’s Weekly Blitz just under the wire, if there was a way to measure my performance as a writer, this week my stock would have plummeted drastically.

Speaking of stocks possibly rising or falling, and I’m not talking about the New York Stock Exchange, but the NFL Stock Exchange at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis at this year’s scouting combine. College football players that declare themselves ready for the NFL, stocks are evaluated. About 300 athletes, for six days put their athleticism through a series of drills and tests for owners, scouts and general managers looking for their team’s future investment. The player’s performance will determine his stock value at the NFL draft to be held April 22-23 at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

It was challenging to write this blog, because I didn’t know what to write since I wasn’t able to attend this year’s combine, to see the action, feel the energy and witness the emotion first hand. I had to settle on watching the NFL Network and logging onto Fox Sports.com and NFL.com to check out the daily highlights.

There were questions on two of the NFL’s stock picks. Quarterback Tim Tebow; why won’t he throw at the combine? How will a Rhodes Scholar safety, Myron Rolle, do after taking a year off from playing football to study in Oxford?

At the combine, self imposed pressure is felt by these talented athletes to perform, because the earlier a player gets selected in the draft means a bigger slice of cheddar. It’s a matter of millions for first round draft picks and hundreds of thousands for fifth, sixth and seventh round draft picks.

By Donni Coley

February swiftly came and in two days it will vanish, only to return in 2011. My chance to take in more events celebrating the accomplishments of African-Americans who made history in this country will also be gone, only to get the opportunity again next year.

This past Saturday afternoon, I was an invisible presence in a room full of history. I stood in the Ballroom of the Four Season Hotel, watching the large room become transformed for the Black College Football Hall of Fame Inaugural Enshrinement  Ceremony, woo…that was a lot to write without taking a breathe.

Sadly, I wasn’t able to attend the evening ceremony, because of my busy schedule, but I was able to admire all of the wonderful memorabilia, for the auction that night, filling the back area of the Ballroom.

In 2004, James “Shack” Harris and Doug Williams, former Grambling State University quarterbacks and National Football League pioneers, began tossing around the concept of establishing a hall of fame honoring the greatest football players and coaches of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Their vision finally materialized on February 20^th, 2010 here in Atlanta.

Williams stated, “We want to make sure we preserve the history and legacy of the game at historically black colleges.”

Embarrassed, I have to say being an Atlanta implant for over 20 years; my first black college football experience was on September 26, 2009. I was able to get press credentials to the Bank of America Atlanta Football Classic at the Georgia Dome. Sitting in the press box, feeling like a true journalist, I witnessed the Classic’s revered rivals the Tennessee State Tigers and the Florida A&M Rattlers battling it out. At halftime I got the pleasure to feel the thump, thump, thump of the FAMU Marching 100. The band’s entire performance was a dedication to the great gloved one, Michael Jackson. IT WAS AMAZING! When it was all said and done Florida A&M defeated Tennessee State 31-12.

Let the team of End Zone to End Zone take this moment to congratulate the Inaugural Inductees – Class 0f 2010

 Junious “Buck” Buchanan- Grambling State University (1959-1963)

Alonzo “Jake” Gaither- Florida A & M University (1945-1969)

Willie Galimore- Florida A & M University (1953-1956)

David “Deacon” Jones- South Carolina State, Mississippi Valley State University (1958-1960)

Willie Lanier- Morgan State University (1936-1967)

Bill Nunn- Contributor- Journalist and NFL Scout

Walter Payton-Jackson- State University (1971-1974)

Jerry Rice- Mississippi Valley State University (1981-1984)

Eddie Robinson- Grambling State University (1941-1997)

Ben Stevenson- Tuskegee University (1923-1930)

Paul “Tank” Younger- Grambling State University (1945-1948)

By Donni Coley

My creative muse was at it again, filling my creative tank with ideas for this week’s blog.

I’ve been in the fitness field for over 16 years. I’ve been living fitness since playing my first game of jacks, catching my first softball, and being a fierce competitor in Chinese hopscotch as a little girl. Running two miles every day in the Army for six and half years also contributed to my fitness life.

My creative muse and I were having a discussion about people taking action and taking control of their health, but to get to that point of making it a lifestyle they must suffer the I’M SICK AND TIRED AND I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE syndrome.

I mentioned to her that I pretty much can tell when a person is going to stick with a fitness program passed a wedding, a high school reunion or a summer cruise to the Bahamas, sadly the percentage is low.

We came to the conclusion that connecting with one’s own mind and finally choosing to take control, helps in the remedy of the I’M SICK AND TIRED AND I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE syndrome. In everything we do, we must make a choice.

So how does this relate to football?  

Well, Michael Vick chose to be lazy and complacent while he was with the Atlanta Falcons. For Vick there was no connection with the Atlanta Falcons or his “Dirty Birds” fans.

Some of you might have heard last week that Michael Vick, on 790 AM The Zone, confessed he was lazy and complacent and didn’t give 100% while he was an Atlanta Falcon.

“I thought what I was doing was enough”-Michael Vick

So my heart goes out to all of you “Dirty Birds”, because while Vick was with the Atlanta Falcons he was just collecting a pay check. Even after the Falcons resigned him in December 2004 giving him one of the biggest contracts in Falcons’ history, a 10 year, 130 million contract with a 37 million signing bonus, he still didn’t take his role as the Falcon’s franchise QB serious. He just chose to go with the flow for six years.

I have to admit I was completely caught off guard hearing he made the confession. So, I chose to give him kudos for doing that.

The two things I love the most are; doing something creative, like writing, and sports, especially football. I am an artist in my own right, an award winning photographer, winner of a short film contest, and one of my photographs and a poem I wrote got published. I was an athlete in my own right too, a starting point guard in middle and high school, a recreational softball player, and I dibbled and dabbled a little bit with tennis.

Two Sundays ago, I was at the Jazz Bar listening to Atlanta’s best unknown talent. The artists there were so amazing I was completely blown away, especially by this female singer and this young female violinist, both of their performances were jaw dropping, and I’m a shamed to say that I only paid a $5 cover charge for this awesome night of entertainment.

The next day after coming back down to earth, I got to thinking, what make these artists soooo good? I called a friend and she patiently listened while I raved for five minutes about these amazing artists. I started telling her how the singers were taking the songs they were singing and making it theirs, how they were not afraid to let themselves go, and how they just surrender to what they were singing. She finally said, “That’s your next blog, “Surrender to Your Sport”, start writing, bye”, and she hung up.

The toughest thing for me when I started writing the Weekly Blitz a year and 35 days ago, and right now as I sit here typing this blog, is revealing a little bit of me each week and letting myself go as a writer, just like those singers did on stage Sunday night, allowing themselves to be vulnerable in front of 30 to 50 strangers.

How do you surrender your talent as a football player or a team? Honestly, I don’t know. But, on Super Bowl Sunday, I felt the New Orleans Saints surrender to destiny while sitting in their locker room, down 10-6, waiting to come out for the second half. Coach Sean Payton decided to do something I have never seen before, kick an onside kick to start the third quarter, the Saints recovered the ball, and six plays later, a 16 yards catch-and-run TD by Pierre Thomas.

It seemed after that series, the Saints became poised, started to relaxed, and began taking what the Colts were willing to give them on the playing field. I guess you can say they just surrendered to the game.

Now they are Super Bowl XLIV Champions. WHO…! DAT…!

By Donni Coley

Would you whether have your team gelling on all cylinders, or operating individually as talented parts? Which is more important for a team to be a Super Bowl champion, gelling or athleticism?

I believe a team needs both, chemistry and talent, but a team is in a better position to get the big fish, a Super Bowl title, when they are gelling on all cylinders. A talented team with three or four key parts can win games, but to win a Super Bowl the gel factor creates the turbo drive a team needs to raise the Lombardi trophy at the end of the season. For those teams where gelling was at an octane level, they were able to hoist up a multitude of Lombardi trophies they now proudly showcase in their facilities.  

On Sunday night the two most gelling teams in the NFL this season, the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts, will go to battle in South Florida, for the covenant Super Bowl XLIV title.  

Yeah, a team can get away with having talent and almost no chemistry, however, when it comes to winning a conference, a division or a national title, the team with the greater gel factor holds the ace of spade. Because all NFL teams have “talent” at the skill positions once they make the playoffs.

My top five gelling teams of 2009 are the New Orleans Saints, the Indianapolis Colts, the Minnesota Vikings, the Arizona Cardinals and the New York Jets.

Who are your top five gelling teams?

Riding Miss Destiny

By Donni Coley

Sunday evening Howie Long, of Fox Sports, picked the New Orleans Saints to win against the Minnesota Vikings, not because the Saints have a better offense or defense, but because he felt it was their time…their fate…THEIR DESTINY. The Big Dog was right.

What an interesting way to make a prediction, from the heart; not from statistics, not from the last three games played, or from the team’s record, but from deep down inside the pump of life.

That’s not how I made my pick; I struggled, agonizing over which team to pick. So I did the most common thing in football, I flipped a coin, heads for Minnesota, tails for New Orleans, it was heads, so I went for the Vikings.

 1-New Orleans Saints (13-3) vs. 2-Minnesota Vikings (12-4)

Miss Destiny worked overtime for the Saints, well passed 11’clock Sunday night, their fate sealed by only 3 points, winning the NFC Championship and a trip to South Florida for Super Bowl XLIV.

I can’t go back into the past to examine Howie’s destiny pick because I promised my co-worker Sam Jones, a native of New Orleans; I wouldn’t write anything about the “K” while writing this blog. He told me I should write other things about the Saints without including the “K”, such as, the nucleus between a head coach and quarterback. He’s right, so that will be my next week blog, The Gel Factor-Coach and QB pt2.

Two weeks from now, I don’t know if Miss Destiny continues to ride with the Saints, but, their trip on the one lane highway to Super Bowl, NFL was a long, long, long, stretch, 43 years.

Is lifting the 44^th Lombardi Trophy for the first time in franchise history the New Orleans Saints destiny?

By Donni Coley

 The last college football game was wrapped up on January 7^th with the Bowl Series Championship game. Now that the college season is over, and the National Football League will finish up its season in about two weeks, my question to you is, what level of football you watched more of, college football or the NFL?

If you only watched college football this season and didn’t even grab the remote to watch the NFL, does this make you a true grit football fan?

I recently learned that one of my two friends only watches pro football and don’t even turn on his flat screen on to watch one of the highest level of amateur sports, college football. I was like, Are you crazy man? How can you not watch college football? His reason I’m shame to say was he didn’t know any of the college players by name. What! With all the media coverage giving to top colleges and elite players today, how can you not know them by name?  Who doesn’t know Mark Ingram, Tim Tebow or Cody McCoy?  

During the season my remote gets its most intense training, from me watching both college and NFL games on the weekend. Since I have more free time on Sundays I watch more pro games than college games, but college football is more exciting to watch. As most of you know my heart is with the Big 12 Conference because I was born and raised in the hearty state of Nebraska. Cornhusker country!

I must confess, I don’t watch any high school football games, at this time my Fridays don’t allow me the leisure.

I tremendously enjoy football at all levels. To me the true essence of football comes from the amateur level, especially the pee-wees, who are getting their first taste of America’s game. The pro players we see on Sundays come out of many of these amazing amateur associations.

I guess I am a 50/50 true grit football fan.

 So, are you a true grit football fan?