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Slim pickings Ravens scrambling after loss of RB Lewis
A couple of weeks ago, standing on the sidelines of an NFL training camp practice, a scout sidled up to me. The subject of the Baltimore Ravens came up. And this scout said: "They're the best team in the league, but they also might be one of the thinnest." With their 1,364-yard running back, Jamal Lewis, headed for season-ending knee surgery, that point is haunting the Super Bowl champs. His backups show how depthless the Ravens are at running back: Jason Brookins, who wasn't good enough to win a starting job with the Rhein Fire of NFL Europe this spring, and fifth-round pick Chris Barnes from New Mexico State. So now the cap-strapped Ravens will go out on the market and try to find another back. Errict Rhett, who has neither the speed nor power to emulate Lewis, is probably the best free agent, edging Adrian Murrell. Not much there. Oakland would give them Terry Kirby for next to nothing, and Skip Hicks could probably be had from Chicago. Whatever they do, though, the Ravens have just taken a huge body blow on their road to repeating as Super Bowl champs.
Patriots paying price for Glenn's camp absenceThere's no question that AWOL wide receiver Terry Glenn has left a hole at New England by walking out in the wake of his four-game suspension. And don't count on the Patriots being able to trade Glenn, because the remainder of his pro-rated signing bonus, some $6.5 million, would come due on the Patriots' salary cap right now. So that can't happen. It's also not likely, for now, that the team would flex its legal muscles and put Glenn on the reserve/left-camp list, which would force him to miss the season but still be the Pats' property next year. It's more likely that New England will play the waiting game with Glenn and try to salvage something out of him once he finishes the suspension. Until then, here are your starting New England wide receivers: Bert Emanuel and Troy Brown -- with David Patten likely No. 3.
Grumblings about substance-abuse policyA clarification, now, about the NFL's substance-abuse policy. Both Glenn and the Raiders' Darrell Russell are upset by what they feel is the league's unbending rule regarding testing. Under the league's program, a player who has tested positive for a banned substance once is then eligible to be tested up to 10 times a month, in and out of season. If a player is traveling, or on vacation, that doesn't matter -- he has to tell the program administrator where he'll be and give contact information. If the league can't find the player, or the player doesn't return the phone call from the league requesting a test within 24 hours, that's considered a positive test. "They tested Darrell Russell more than a guy on parole from San Quentin would get tested," Raiders head coach Jon Gruden groused to me this week. But as Russell's teammate, NFLPA president Trace Armstrong told me, the deal was collectively bargained, and the players agreed to it. So the players have to live by it. Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL beat for the magazine and appears each Sunday on CNN's NFL Preview.
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