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I'm not sure if anyone heard, but LeBron James says he's playing for the Miami Heat next year.
The story broke pretty quietly, I know. In case you weren't watching the ridiculous ESPN one-hour special, the 28,000 text message notifications and Tweets and Facebook posts might have alerted you to LeBron's decision.
Personally, I'm shocked with how it all went down; I thought for sure that LeBron was going to Ohio State and playing for the Buckeyes. Instead, he's forming his own Dream Team in Miami with Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh...and a bunch of guys off the street.
Now that the whole LeBron Watch is finally over, we can turn our attention to one thing -- the Brett Favre Watch.
Goody.
I've got a couple legitimate notes to discuss this morning, the first of which is from NFL Network's Michael Lombardi, who said last night on NFL Total Access that Ed Reed will not be receiving a new contract.
Not breaking news there, considering that Reed is still under contract with the Ravens for three more years and is set to earn at least $6 million in each of those seasons.
What Lombardi also pointed out, however, is that if Reed decides to retire not due to injury, he would actually lose money. Under those circumstances, the Ravens' six-time Pro Bowl safety would owe the team $5.2 million in previously-paid bonus money.
Reed said earlier this week that his plan is to play "at least one more year". The goal for now will be rehabbing his surgically-repaired hip and returning healthy for the 2010 season.
Meanwhile, ESPN's John Clayton had an interesting piece yesterday which examined the backup quarterback situation around the league.
Clayton said that most NFL front office people talk about the value of a solid backup QB, and he credited the Ravens for adding Marc Bulger, who will fill that role behind Joe Flacco and add insurance in case Flacco gets injured.
But in the piece, Clayton says that despite the talk of how important it is to have a proven quarterback ready on the sidelines, few teams actually have a backup that can step in and lead the offense, if needed.
Super Bowl caliber teams like the Saints, Colts and Patriots all have young, inexperienced signal callers backing up their Pro Bowl starters. If Drew Brees, Peyton Manning or Tom Brady get hurt and are out for an extended period of time, that could mean the end of their playoff hopes.
The Ravens aren't in that boat; in fact, they now probably have the top backup quarterback in the league. Bulger might not see any in-game action outside of the preseason, but the insurance that he brings will be invaluable to John Harbaugh and Cam Cameron.
