MVN - Most Valuable Network

Jason Taylor plays the role of the Ionic Breeze

How? Because on Sunday, he cleared the air.

In a move that is somewhat unusual for a single player to do but was clearly needed with all the drama going on, Taylor held a press conference Sunday. The location was also unusual, at the top level of an arena. But perhaps the city held a clue.

Hollywood, Florida.

First and foremost, Taylor says he has NOT demanded a trade from the Dolphins. If this is true, it’s somewhat surprising. I’m not calling his honesty into question, but this may have been wordplay. Perhaps HE has not demanded a trade. Maybe his agent made the actual phonecall. But Taylor is no dumb guy. He sees the position Miami is in. Bill Parcells is enough of a genius that he’d dismantled most of last year’s team and we are still probably going to improve significantly.

However, Taylor did confirm one important detail to this story. He wants to play ONE more season. Then he will retire to follow his Hollywood (the other one) chances. We’re not winning the Super Bowl next year. I’ll be the first to eat my words if we do, but Parcells is not that much of a miracle worker. You just don’t go from 1-15 to Super Bowl in year 1. Two years, possibly. Three years, maybe. Four years (Parcells’ contract, by the way) is really when the team will be ready.

So Jason Taylor came out and spoke straight and forward on every issue, right? Nope. He did some quickstepping, his best dance, around some pointed questions. Does he want to be here next year? Does Jason Taylor want to be a Dolphin in 2008?

“Do I want to be here? Yeah, I’d love to be here. I would love to be a Dolphin and win games and have it work out for everybody. But that may not be the case.”

Of course. That’s the dream scenario. But as I just laid out, that’s not likely. And what’s more important than being a Dolphin?

“I want to win in ‘08. That’s what I want to do. And I’ve told the Dolphins from Day 1 that was my intention. My intentions right now are to play one more year. I’ve tried to give the Dolphins the opportunity, if they wanted to do something and move me, I was OK with that. If they can get value from me, then do that. That was the conversation we had behind closed doors a long time ago.”

I want to win IN ‘08. Not I want to win sometime. Not I want to wait until the Dolphins are winning again. NOW. But the other strange part of that quote is Taylor saying he wants Miami to get value for him. Part of me gets that, he’s a Dolphin through and through and doesn’t want to hurt the team in leaving it. But at the same time, I wouldn’t begrudge him for not caring if we got value. Heck, we just let Zach Thomas go for nothing. Why should Jason care that we get something for him? By the way, he called Thomas’ release “disappointing”.

He was asked about Coach Sparano’s comment that he won’t be attending any camp activities, including required training camp. He said that Sparano seemed to be trying to accomplish something slightly different than what he said. I theorized something similar, that the Dolphins may have been trying to shift public perception. However, he said that what Sparano and he discussed about camp was behind closed doors and will stay that way for now.

He did explain WHY he will miss some upcoming activities. He will miss Monday’s OTA to host a charity golf tournament for his foundation. I have to think the team would forgive that more easily if not for the Dancing situation. He will then miss minicamp this weekend for his brother’s graduation and a legal matter he did not expound on. Those are all totally legitimate excuses. He did not offer any words on whether he will attend training camp. He also acknowledged the Parcells Cold Shoulder story when he visited during Dancing with the Stars, but wouldn’t talk about it.

So, readers, what are your thoughts? Did Jason speak from the heart in telling his side? Or was it all just acting? Whose side are you on, and did that change with today’s words?

Draft Diaries should continue later this week.

Report: Chargers interested in Taylor

In light of the fact that he’s not going to participate in any preseason activities with them, we can say with 99.9% certainty that Jason Taylor isn’t going to be a Miami Dolphin this coming year. The question now is where is he going to wind up? On a different football field, on the big screen or on the couch? The NFL Network’s Adam Schefter thinks he knows. According to Schefter, the San Diego Chargers have inquired about acquiring Taylor’s services.

The Chargers and the Dolphins have made a lot of deals in the past few years and San Diego, a shoe in as a Super Bowl contender this season, would seem like an ideal fit for Jason. However, the Bolts already have all the help they need at OLB in Shawne Merriman and Shaun Phillips and it’s highly doubtful that Taylor would accept a backup role. Furthermore, Taylor isn’t too fond of the one they call Lights Out and vica versa. In 2006, when Taylor narrowly won the Defensive Player of the Year award over Merriman, he had some choice words for the Chargers linebacker regarding his four game suspension for substance abuse.

“You really shouldn’t be able to fail a test like that and play in this league, to begin with,” Taylor said during an interview. “To make the Pro Bowl and all the other awards, I think you’re walking a fine line of sending the wrong message.”

Merriman fired back, saying he hopes the Dolphins enjoy watching him in the playoffs.

Two things are for sure. One, things are getting downright ugly between Taylor and the Triforce. At this point, JT could probably be had for next to nothing. And two, Taylor wants that elusive Super Bowl ring a billion times more than he wanted to beat Kristi Yamaguchi. But, going on 34 with a wife, kids and nothing more to prove, will he resort to moving 3,000 miles away from home and become the outsider on a team that already knows him for all the wrong reasons? I don’t think so.

If no one else makes an offer, I foresee Taylor unhappily retiring from football, bringing a bitter end to what has been a great career.

Bombshell: Taylor will not report

Today was the last day of the Dolphins OTA minicamp, and coach Tony Sparano dropped a bombshell report that changes the whole Jason Taylor story.

Taylor isn’t coming.

Not to the OTAs.  Not to minicamp.  And, as far as he is aware, not to even mandatory training camp.

It’s a shocking development, mainly due to the fact that up until now Taylor had almost everyone on his side.  Some fans were upset about Taylor missing voluntary workouts, but since they were voluntary it wasn’t a big deal.  With Sparano told that Taylor is refusing to report to training camp, this hints at one of two things.

He may hold out and demand a trade to a contender.  Now that Dancing is over, I welcome that.  Anytime he is traded from here on out the story will be that Miami traded the Dancing Dolphin, but it’s better than having it happen during the show.

Or, he may just retire and start acting now.  He doesn’t have a ring, but he’s a borderline Hall-of-Famer and his Hollywood potential has never been higher.  Maybe he doesn’t want to go back to football.

My gut says it’s the first one.  He has a few years left and wants to add Super Bowl Champion to possible Hall of Famer.  He knows that won’t happen here, the Dolphins are probably past Taylor’s remaining seasons away from contention.  Perhaps another move with Dallas, reuniting him with his brother-in-law Zach Thomas.  But I think the trade would be to Jacksonville, which has done everything but beg for Taylor’s services and desperately needs another pass rushing end.

I will put forth the caveat that we have NOT heard from Taylor on this.  I would not at all put it past Parcells to put out this bit of information even if it’s not true.  Shift some of that fan love away, get the fans mad at Jason and not Parcells.  And secretly tell him to get that fan love back, all you have to do is show up, tell the fans you changed your mind, etc.

But this web becoming so tangled, I think it’s time that everyone involved just moved on.  During Wednesday’s OTA, Taylor was the only Dolphin not in attendance.

Time to make the attendance record perfect.  Time to send Jason packing.

Dancing his way to Silver: Taylor falls just short

Tonight the sixth season of Dancing with the Stars came to a close.

Early in the evening, Cristian de la Fuente was informed that he had been eliminated, finishing in 3rd.  He is scheduled for surgery tomorrow, so as long as that’s legit I applaud him for pressing on through the contest.

That set up a head-to-head contest between the two titans of the season; Jason Taylor and Kristi Yamaguchi.  Taylor was already facing an uphill climb, after his two dances netted him a total of 51 points, 9 behind Kristi’s perfect 60.  Then Kristi went first tonight and perfectly replicated her perfect jive, netting another 30 and making sure Jason could only match her.

There were two routes he could have taken.  Take their worst dance and try to improve, or take their best dance and stay close.  They chose the best, taking another crack at his season best 29 for the QuickStep to “Dirty Boogie”.  And Jason finally heard the three words he’d been waiting to hear all season long.

“TEN!”  “TEN!”  “TEN!”

Grumble Number One: The Judges.  Not for giving Jason the 30.  But all 3 judges basically said the same thing about Kristi; she’d been amazingly consistent all year long, and while she MISSED A STEP, most dancers would have fallen down after missing that step and she recovered and didn’t miss a beat.  And then they still gave her 10s.  At this point, I think they wanted to let the fans decide.  These are both amazing dancers, just give them 30s, and lets the fans pick.

So then we spend 10 minutes as ABC builds the drama up.  “And the winner of season six of Dancing with the Stars is…

KRISTI AND MARK!”

Fan voting wasn’t released, but with the judges scores counting for half and the fans half, 9 points was a very large margin to make up.  However…

Grumble Number Two: The three finalists danced last night, 2 dances each.  Then, the fans voted.  Then they let Kristi and Jason dance one more time.  Did the fans get to vote again with only two competitors?  NO.  Everyone who voted for Cristian had their vote basically wasted, when they could have voted for Kristi or Jason.  Jason would have gotten Cristian’s “hunk votes” so who knows?  If you want the big face-off vibe, then extend the competition one more week, and have the face-off on the last week.

Now my two grumbles don’t mean she wasn’t deserving.  She was technically amazing, which isn’t surprising seeing as her career was made dancing on ice.  Once she learned to emote on an average scale, she pretty much clinched it.

So Jason finishes in 2nd.  Didn’t win.  So this whole Hollywood thing is over, right?  Nope.  He’s gonna do some morning talk shows today, then miss this weekend’s OTA to explore some Hollywood opportunities.  Sure Bill was happy to get that phone call!  Don’t fret, Dolfans, when mandatory mincamp opens in early June, Jason Taylor will be there.

Unless he retires to be in a movie.  Or gets traded.

Sorry for the delay on Draft Diaries.  Gonna try to get some more editions up this week.

So, we welcome your comments.  As to not get myself all worked up (since I have a strong opinion on the subject), we won’t delve into whether Jason should have done this or not.  Here’s my reader participation question.  Actually, I have two.

1) How do you feel about DWTS being over?  Are you glad he’ll finally be back to football, or sad you won’t get that weekly glimpse into his mind?

2) Suppose, for whatever reason,  DWTS decides it was good having a Dolphin on (maybe Miami gave good ratings).  Suppose Bill Parcells DOES NOT outlaw any Dolphin from doing this show ever again.  Who should the next Dolphin to do Dancing be?