Quote of the Week

	Gary Kubiak hasn't been mincing words in his first training camp as Texans coach. AP

"Parents, teach your children well. Remember that you are the windows through which your children view the world.... Your example will stir their hearts and souls.''
-- Hall of Fame inductee Rayfield Wright, the former Cowboys tackle.

Quote of the Week II

"I'll be honest with you, Vernand. I don't like the way you run. From now on you've got one cut -- and then I want to see you turn it upfield every time.''
-- Kubiak to Morency, a shifty, cutback kind of running back. In Denver, Shanahan and Kubiak preached to their backs to get upfield and stop dancing around. Kubiak's going to be an interesting guy to watch.

Factoid That May Interest Only Me

The outrageously monstrous Ford F-650 SuperCrewzer, owned by Tennessee defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth, has a 107-gallon gas tank.

Let's say Haynesworth is running on empty and he pulls into a Nashville gas station to fill 'er up, at $2.999 per gallon. The truck runs on diesel fuel.

It would cost Haynesworth $320.89 to fill the tank.

Something tells me fellow Volunteer-stater Al "An Inconvenient Truth'' Gore would have a little problem with Haynesworth's mode of transportation. Gore, I'm guessing, would puke at the monster trucks and supersized vehicles in NFL parking lots.

Factoid That May Interest Only Me II

Tampa Bay quarterback Chris Simms does not use a computer except when he has to at work. He does not open e-mail. He does not use text-messaging.

"I guess I'm old-school,'' he told me. "I talk on the phone. That's how I communicate.''

Stat of the Week

You may not have a lot of interest in how the contracts of the first-round picks got done this year. Heck, I don't care much either. The stuff bores me to tears, and from what I've heard from fans over the years, most people don't open the paper and say, "Wow, how interesting, first-round picks aren't getting signing bonuses anymore. They're getting roster bonuses and other bonuses that skirt the rookie pool's integrity.''

But I'll throw a few things out there that interest me from the contracts signed so far.

The basic reason there was widespread erasing of signing bonuses this year is because while the salary cap went up 20 percent, from $85 million to $102 million per team, the rookie pool went up only five percent. So agents of top players aren't going to ask for a five percent raise when the game is flush with so much money. Signing bonuses have to be prorated over the life of contracts, so if Mario Williams got a $25 million signing bonus and it was prorated over six years, that's $4.17 million in '06 Houston rookie-pool dollars assigned to the signing bonus of only one player, with a first-year salary of $275,000. The $4.45 million total for one player would be ludicrous when the Texans' rookie pool mandates that the team spend only $5.38 million on rookie compensation in '06. They could not have signed their remaining six picks for $930,000 in '06 cap dollars. Impossible.

And so Williams became the first of 30 picks to do a deal without the mega signing bonuses that have become so familiar over the years. Instead he'll get a $2.625 million roster bonus (assigned for cap purposes solely to this year's cap) with a salary of $275,000, for a cap total of $2.9 million. The Texans squeezed in the other six picks for a total of $2.48 million in '06 costs. When Williams completes his rookie year, the Texans, by March 15 of next year, will exercise the option to guarantee his base salaries from '07 through '11, plus hand Williams a $12 million option bonus. In total, that's $26.5 million in guaranteed money -- which is better than the signing bonus he most likely would have earned anyway. And if it's guaranteed and spread over a five-year term, the money he loses in investment potential by not getting an up-front lump sum will be money he'll save in tax liability over the next few years.

Here's the only thing that matters from a competition standpoint: Several general managers, including Indy's Bill Polian, have given me chapter and verse over the past two weeks about how damaging these contracts are. Williams will have bonus money and salaries guaranteed for the first six years of his career. What motivation, other than the escalators and incentives that could bring the value of the deal to $54 million, does Williams have? It's going to be very interesting over the next few years.