Not All News Is Bad for Jaguars

Leon Searcy. Fred Taylor. Carnell Lake.

The injury news keeps flowing out of the Jacksonville Jaguars’ camp, and those are only a few from a long list.

Maybe the only good thing is that it keeps people from talking so much about the three games the Jaguars lost last season--all to the Tennessee Titans.

Tony Boselli, returning from January knee surgery, doesn’t mind.

“I like the position we’re in,” said Boselli, a Pro Bowl tackle from USC. “People are starting to doubt us a little bit because we’ve had a couple of injuries and some other teams have been hot and acquired some guys.

“I like it. Because it doesn’t mean a hill of beans what anyone says before the season. We’ve learned that. We had a great regular season last year and we didn’t get what we wanted.”

Boselli says he’ll be ready to play in the Jaguars’ opener against the Cleveland Browns, though he has yet to scrimmage as he works his way back from surgery for a torn knee ligament.

“My knee is coming along great,” he said. “It’s right on track. I’m doing more and more in practice every day.”

He’ll return to anchor a line that has been hit hard by injuries, most seriously the torn quadriceps tendon Searcy suffered early in camp. That will keep Searcy, the Jaguars’ other Pro Bowl tackle, sidelined until at least November.

Another concern is Taylor, a gifted running back with a history of injuries.

He might sit out the opener after suffering a sprained knee in an exhibition, but should be OK after that. In the meantime, the Jaguars will see what they can expect from Stacey Mack and Chris Howard should Taylor get hurt again, now that backup James Stewart is with the Detroit Lions.

The latest news is Lake, a 12-year veteran safety from UCLA who will sit out the season after deciding to undergo a second surgery on a painful foot problem.

But the focus has been on the offensive line, and the Jaguars addressed the problem by acquiring Brenden Stai from the Kansas City Chiefs. He’ll start at right guard alongside Zach Wiegert, who is replacing Searcy at right tackle but has sat out at times this summer because of a hyperextended elbow. (Stai and Wiegert played together at Nebraska, so the Jaguars are betting the familiarity is a bonus.) The line also is awaiting the return of center John Wade from a stress fracture in his foot.

“I think we’ll be fine,” Boselli said. “It’ll take some time. As long as we go out and work hard and stay physical, the rest will take care of itself. It might not be the prettiest or the most in sync at times, but we’ll be all right.”

Quarterback Mark Brunell is counting on it.

“I don’t think it will take very long with guys like Tony, Zach Wiegert, Leon Searcy,” Brunell said. “Experienced guys can get in there and execute. Younger guys take longer.”

The Jaguars have a workmanlike air about them, with so much attention on the Washington Redskins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, St. Louis Rams and Titans this summer.

“We were talked about a bunch last year,” said Brunell, whose team has the best regular-season record in the NFL over the last three years at 36-12.

“The simple truth is all the talk in the world’s not going to get you to the Super Bowl. There’ve been times we’ve been talked about a lot, and times in previous years when we haven’t been talked about at all. Whatever the talk is, you have to push it aside and focus on playing.”

And on Oct. 16, they’ll get their first shot at the Titans.

“I’d say probably every player who was on the sidelines last year has it somewhere in the back of their mind,” Brunell said. “It’d be hard not to.”

NEW KID IN TOWN

Receiver R. Jay Soward, the Jaguars’ first-round pick from USC, has nailed down a spot as the third receiver and probably will return punts as well.

The Titan rivalry is something he’ll have to see for himself.

“I haven’t really gotten the feel of it yet,” he said. “I just know this team is bitter, everyone around the city is bitter. That’s one of the main focuses, but you’d better take one game at a time.

“That’s all they say everywhere you go: ‘You better beat Tennessee. Don’t let Tennessee beat you.’ That’s really the community’s main focus.

“It’s a priority to us, but we’re thinking about the Super Bowl. They’re an opponent we have to play to get to the Super Bowl.”

If Soward sounds a little more mature, maybe he is.

“A new start,” he said. “This is like being a freshman again. A lot of people back in Los Angeles think, ‘Aw, he’ll never be an NFL receiver. He’ll just be a return man.’ I came in here and I fought for a spot and I won my spot.”

Soward had a highlight-film 39-yard catch in one exhibition but has had some drops that Coach Tom Coughlin labeled “careless.”

“It’s usually that he’s taking his eye off the ball and he’s in a hurry to go someplace,” Coughlin said.

Last year, Soward was just in a hurry to get to the NFL.

“I didn’t want to be at USC anymore. Just a lot of conflict. My senior year wasn’t anything at all,” he said. “I still love my guys back there, but I departed on a sour note.”

LATE HIT

It took Commissioner Paul Tagliabue a while, but the $250,000 fine levied on Baltimore Raven linebacker Ray Lewis for conduct detrimental to the NFL was appropriate.

Tagliabue said in July he would not suspend Lewis--who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of obstruction of justice as part of a plea bargain clearing him of murder charges in the stabbing deaths of two men after the Super Bowl in Atlanta--because Lewis had suffered enough.

But Tagliabue didn’t rule out a fine, and Thursday the NFL announced Lewis not only must pay $250,000 but faces another $250,000 fine and possible suspension if he violates his probation, which among other things bars him from using drugs or alcohol.

Once you get past the idea of how much $250,000 is--to many people, it’s a house, to Lewis, it’s less than a game’s pay or about 5% of his $4.75-million compensation for the season--the fine is reasonable.

Lewis was charged with murder--and although the charge was dropped in a plea bargain and his two co-defendants were later acquitted--his conduct contributed to the wretched reputation NFL players face after a series of criminal incidents.

Lewis “caused great harm to other NFL players and the league,” Tagliabue wrote in a letter to Lewis and his lawyers justifying the fine.

“The homicides resulted from an altercation at which Mr. Lewis was clearly present,” and Lewis “was not entirely truthful and candid with the police in his initial interview and he counseled others to say nothing about what happened,” Tagliabue wrote.

Lewis deserves sympathy for what he has been through, but he should pay the fine and move on.

BITTER PILLS

The NFL’s next headache appears to be Bill Romanowski, the pill-popping Denver Bronco linebacker who has been fined more than once for dirty play and now faces felony charges related to the illegal acquisition of Phentermine, a prescription diet pill used as a stimulant to enhance performance.

The accompanying controversy over whether Romanowski used a racial epithet--a charge he called an “absolute lie” after Sports Illustrated quoted an anonymous former teammate making the claim--is incendiary.

Retribution on the field is likely unless players become convinced Romanowski didn’t use the offensive term.

The NFL should focus on the issue of the use of controlled substances to enhance performance.

It’s not only a competitive issue or a health issue, it’s a serious legal issue, as the felony charges against Romanowski show. If Romanowski isn’t an isolated case, there’s plenty of trouble ahead.

QB OR NOT QB?

Kurt Warner took only a few snaps in the Rams’ most recent exhibition and has curtailed his activity because of a sore shoulder, and Brett Favre probably will skip the rest of the Green Bay Packers’ exhibition season because of a sore elbow.

The moves are being called precautionary--Warner is scheduled to play the first half of tonight’s exhibition against the Buffalo Bills--but they’re an indication of the awareness of how difficult it is for a quarterback to get through the season even before getting hit.

Warner said this week his shoulder bothered him during the Super Bowl run, a period when some observers noticed his mechanics slipping.

That’s good news, bad news: On the one hand, he won the Super Bowl with a sore shoulder. On the other, the problem isn’t new.

Warner said he isn’t worried.

“It bothered me the same for maybe the last eight weeks of the season last year,” he said. “It’s not anything I can’t deal with and can’t function with, but obviously I’d like to have it gone by the start of the season.”

Warner described the problem as tightness or tendinitis in his biceps tendon typical of the sudden increase in work that comes with training camp.

“I don’t think it’s anything serious, but now’s the time to get on top of it and make sure it’s good for the season,” he said. “I know I could have gone out and played the whole game if I needed to and it wouldn’t have bothered me out there.

“It’s not anything that’s going to be a detriment to me in the long term. It’s something we’ll continue to work on.”

PICKENS IS GRINNIN’

Receiver Carl Pickens, who signed with the Titans after finally receiving his release from the Cincinnati Bengals, was taken aback to see 68,000 at an exhibition with the Rams after playing games in front of crowds in the 40,000s with the Bengals.

“I’m reborn. Re-anything, that’s me,” said Pickens, who starred for Tennessee in college.

A two-time all-pro, Pickens was involved in a nasty dispute as he sought to leave the Bengals, and criticized the team publicly for sticking with Coach Bruce Coslet, inspiring a “loyalty clause” in the team’s contracts.

As for being labeled a troublemaker, “That was in Cincinnati. You work in a negative environment, you start to become negative and think negatively,” said Pickens, particularly offended at being labeled a cancer on the team.

“That really bothered me,” he said. “If I’m a cancer, why did the team sign me to a long-term contract? Why would they do that if I’m a cancer?”

By signing with the Titans, he joined a Super Bowl contender.

Cincinnati is hoping for a boost from new Paul Brown Stadium and rookie receiver Peter Warrick to improve a 4-12 record.

“I don’t know if anything can change it,” Pickens said. “It will take more than just a stadium for things to change.”