Smart money
It's a pretty dead time in pro football right now. The other day, for instance, Giants coach Jim Fassel dismissed his players for most of the next month, and the majority of his colleagues are doing the same with their teams (with some exceptions, such the hard-working Falcons), giving them a final break before training camp begins.
Given that there's not much happening on the field, I thought this might be a good week to opine on the 10-year anniversary of NFL free agency, which was born in 1993. I think free agency is a great thing for the league. It gives teams anti-Steinbrenner insurance and protects a Daniel Snyder from going wild with signing bonuses one year without it eventually -- and hugely -- affecting his team's salary cap. At the same time, free agency allows every team, every year to have some sort of hope during the offseason. I've often said that, as a Giants' fan growing up in Connecticut in the late-'60s and early '70s, "hope" was often a four-letter word when it came to my favorite team. From the time I was 9, in 1966, to 1975, when I graduated from high school, the Giants got over .500 only twice and never made the playoffs. Us Giants fans learned to never hope for the playoffs. Granted, a bad front office helped keep the franchise down, but the "old days" in pro football aren't days to long for, in my opinion....
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It's a pretty dead time in pro football right now. The other day, for instance, Giants coach Jim Fassel dismissed his players for most of the next month, and the majority of his colleagues are doing the same with their teams (with some exceptions, such the hard-working Falcons), giving them a final break before training camp begins.
Given that there's not much happening on the field, I thought this might be a good week to opine on the 10-year anniversary of NFL free agency, which was born in 1993. I think free agency is a great thing for the league. It gives teams anti-Steinbrenner insurance and protects a Daniel Snyder from going wild with signing bonuses one year without it eventually -- and hugely -- affecting his team's salary cap. At the same time, free agency allows every team, every year to have some sort of hope during the offseason. I've often said that, as a Giants' fan growing up in Connecticut in the late-'60s and early '70s, "hope" was often a four-letter word when it came to my favorite team. From the time I was 9, in 1966, to 1975, when I graduated from high school, the Giants got over .500 only twice and never made the playoffs. Us Giants fans learned to never hope for the playoffs. Granted, a bad front office helped keep the franchise down, but the "old days" in pro football aren't days to long for, in my opinion....
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