I want to talk about the obvious story today – JaMarcus Russell – but before I do I just want to hit on the Red Wings’ game for a second. It’s in the first intermission as I write this, but the Wings, facing elimination, have jumped out to a 5-0 lead. More remarkable (or unexpected given the way the two teams have played up to this point) than that is the fact that the first four goals scored in the game – over a span of five minutes and 36 seconds – were all scored by Johan Franzen. Franzen is one of the best pure scorers in the league, but he has struggled with injuries this year and had been in a bit of a slump so far in the playoffs with only two goals in 10 games up to this point. This explosion, coming against a very good goalie in Evgeni Nabokov, is probably unprecedented in playoff action. It’s pretty much impossible to believe.

Now on to Russell. I was surprised to see the Raiders cut him free today in that I had come to the conclusion that they probably wouldn’t. They obviously need to be rid of him, but I have come to expect such ludicrous stupidity from that team lately that I didn’t actually believe that they had made a mistake and do something about it. Now that they have done it, though, you can’t help but admire it. Russell was terrible, and it’s hard to believe that he wasn’t a major negative influence in that dressing room as well. He could throw a ball a hundred miles, but he had the football IQ of this desk I am sitting at, and a work ethic to match it. I will never understand how a guy in his position could consistently come into camp overweight, and not work hard enough to make his opportunity pay off. I’m not a huge Jason Campbell fan, but I think that this team is automatically dramatically better with Russell out of the picture, and Campbell and Gradkowski at the helm. It will be easy to overreact, but it will be fun to watch how much this team improves this season. This is the kind of change that can reinvigorate a team.

Now the big question is what happens to Russell next. On one hand you have to believe that some team is going to pick him up – he’s a physical freak who had first overall skills, is still young, and hasn’t exactly been worn out or broken down by his play so far. Some team is going to take a shot at that – especially because they can have him for nothing, and likely not paying him much, either. On the other hand, it will take a brave team with management and a coaching staff in a secure position to take him. The team that picks him will immediately be subject to criticism and ridicule, and there is a very good chance that he will be just as much of a dud in his new settings as he was in Oakland. You could argue that this situation will humble him, but if he didn’t have his work ethic fired up by this point then I find it hard to believe that it will get better in a new setting. Ryan Leaf didn’t become less of a moron after getting cut by San Diego. I think a team will take him, but I sure wouldn’t want it to be a team I cared about.