Obama-ball

We start with something absolutely unrelated to football (unless you count the Super Bowl reference in the education section). The State of The Union Address by the President. I'm not even a US citizen and I a) watched the whole thing and b) was inspired by the speech. Maybe it's just the delivery, because man Obama can deliver a speech. But even if he only delivers half of what was promised, that'll be a big step forward for the US. It was a speech that hit all the right spots for me. Shame about the Atlantic Ocean being in the middle I guess. Anyone need a receivers coach? And the fact that I started off the post with that tells you everything you need to know about this week and probably next week as well. As in, it's going to be a loonnnng two weeks to the Super Bowl. Right now the only things worth scratching the surface news wise are that Carson Palmer wants out in Cincinnati and Chad Ochocinco wants back in. Palmer is requesting a trade or else he plans to retire and give up the remainder of his salary. Apparently he's well set financially, which I can fully believe considering he's been on an NFL quarterbacks wage all this time. Will the Bengals give him up? Their stance so far has been to call his bluff and say "ok, retire" but I guess it depends on what kind of deal comes their way. There are plenty of teams out there looking for quarterbacks who may be tempted to part with picks in exchange for a QB they know more about than any rookie and whose expected performance in the NFL they can more reliably predict. But for Gods sake 49ers, don't let it be us! As for Ochocinco, he's considering a new name change.... back to just being plain Chad Johnson. Whether he'll be wearing 85 or not next season is a subordinate concern as to where he'll be playing. The Raiders have been tipped as one possibility as they certainly could use a decent wideout or two (or three) but just about the only thing that seems guaranteed is that he won't be back in a Bengals uniform, not given the ever increasing acrimony between him and head coach Marvin Lewis. The question becomes will he be traded or simply cut? The good money says no team will do the trade when the strong possibility exists of him being let loose in the near future. So with that out of the way, what next? Unless some absolutely amazing news comes to light, it's going to be a sparse week or two me thinks. I'm going to try and catch as much coverage as I can of the Senior Bowl and possibly could use this week to give you some of my early thoughts regarding my 2011 rookie watch list, which probably wont be finalised until July/August time when training camps begin. Also in the works is a plan to start looking back at every team prior to the start of Free Agency and assess their season just gone and what they might need for the season ahead. That includes looking at the list of all their free agents on the block, which is a big list thanks to the whole labor deal last year. I'll have a look at where they might be trying to strengthen in 2011 and just generally making a bunch of speculative assessments. I might even start a new blog on Politics. So keep your dial tuned to this station. Or, I guess, just use the favourites button?