Why NFL rookies have no excuses for misbehavior, plus more mailbag

Regarding your recent column, the Packers' operating profit last season was $20.1 million, but after deducting their investment loss and taxes, their net income was only $4 million, for a profit margin (net income divided by gross sales) of 1.61 percent, which is minuscule. The average profit margin of S&P 500 companies from 1980 to 2005 (before the current recession) was 8.3 percent. If they don't turn a profit, they go out of business (in this case, they'd have to sell). Eighty percent of all businesses go out of business within five years; 96% of all businesses go out of business within 10 years. The Packers are saving up money to re-sign seven key veterans whose contracts expire within the next 16 months. They're neither embarrassing the NFL nor enjoying extravagant profits. They're fortunate to be intelligently operating in the black in this very down economy.
--John Nehmer, Milwaukee

I can now say definitively that the fastest way to get a full inbox is to write anything that could possibly be construed as a knock against either the Packers or the Steelers. The fans of those two teams know how to rally the troops. Unfortunately, a number of you either missed my point all together or failed to understand the perspective from which I write as a former player.

To start, I was not being critical of the Packers organization or Ted Thompson at all. Not even a little bit. In fact, if I were a GM I would run my team very similarly if not identically to the way Thompson does. Build through the draft, give contract extensions to your core players, and supplement occasionally through free agency.

I am also not in any way suggesting the Packers should have spent more of their available cap room in order to show a smaller operating profit. What I am saying is if they had spent more money on player compensation during the previous NFL fiscal year and gotten closer to the cap as opposed to barely reaching the salary floor, the profit would have been so small on a relative basis that it could have strengthened the owner's position in the upcoming CBA negotiations. And they could have done it by extending their own players like Nick Collins and Jason Spitz if they so chose, thereby not straying from their organizational philosophy. As it stands, the operating profit of over $20 million doesn't really help out the owners. And no, I am not shedding any tears about that.

Could you comment on the issues that a 'mobile' QB creates for an offensive line in pass protection? I have noticed that various athletic and mobile QBs (Daunte Culpepper pre 2005 injury, Mike Vick, Matt Cassel, Ben Roethlisberger) seem to have a high number of sacks, even though they are considered to be very elusive and tough to bring down. Is it all on the offensive line for the high number of sacks?
--No name given, Corunna, Ontario

In my experience offensive linemen typically get excited when they initially work with a mobile quarterback because they feel as if that will help them give up less sacks, i.e., if they get beat, the quarterback may be able to avoid the pass rusher. That excitement, however, quickly gives way to the reality that a lot of times scrambling quarterbacks rack up higher sack numbers because they aren't always where you expect them to be when you are blocking for them and their confidence in their mobility leads them to try to extend plays when sometimes they should just cut their losses.

Ultimately, the most offensive-line friendly quarterbacks are the ones that get their team into the right play or protection at the line of scrimmage, set up in the pocket exactly where the linemen expect them to be, move subtly in the pocket to avoid pressure, get rid of the ball on time, and if all else fails, throws the ball away when nothing is there.

Why even have a physical playbook? All you need is a secure Web site, and a laptop. I thought the NFL was semi-technologically advanced?
--Dave Musumeci, Beverly, Mass.

The NFL is getting more and more "semi-technologically" advanced on a yearly basis by giving players cut-ups of the opposition's game film on DVDs that they can take home to watch as well as compiling better potential tendency statistical information. The move to a secure Web site and a laptop will probably happen at some point in the next decade but this is still football and a lot of the coaches in the NFL are decidedly old-school. I am pretty sure having no hard copy of the playbook would be a mind-blowing event for them. Some of those guys have a hard enough time keeping up just with the increasingly complex video-editing systems that NFL teams employ.

Mr. Tucker, I am curious if football players feel conflicted about playing on Sunday? Do religious players agonize about missing traditional church services held Sunday mornings?
--Matt Carmichael, Seneca, S.C.