Cut superstars day two

As everyone knows, yesterday former league MVP and probable hall of famer LaDianian Tomlinson was cut by the Chargers after another season with injuries and slowing production. He holds the NFL record in about ten categories including most touchdowns in a season, most rushing touchdowns in a season, most consecutive games with a touchdown scored, most points scored in a single season, and the list goes on and on. He's played his entire career with the Chargers and has over 12,000 yards rushing in his career through nine seasons. The last three years his touchdowns have gone down quite a bit. This relates directly to the injuries that he has been suffering causing him to not be at 100%. He's rushed for over one-thousand yards in all of his seasons except the last one. He only had 730 yards rushing last year, and the Chargers have apparently seen enough. It seems as though they don't think that he's the same player offensively, and that it's time to move on.

Today another superstar running back was cut in Brian Westbrook of the Philadelphia Eagles. Westbrook has been a favorite to all Eagles fans with his ability to catch the ball effectively coming out of the slot, return kickoffs and punts, and run the ball with speed. Being from the hometown area going to Villanova in college earned him quite a few points with the locals as well. He's just a few years removed from his best season ever in the NFL, but the concussions and other injuries are catching up with him. He has mentioned before that he is afraid of the long term effects, and the Eagles just decided that having their best player listed as questionable for another season is not in their plans. He was due some seven odd million dollars to play this year after signing a big contract in 2008, and the Eagles would rather move on without him in this cutthroat league even though he is probably the best running back in the teams history. After becoming the starting running back in 2004, Westbrook has helped the Eagles reach a Superbowl (which they lost), and has been a dominate force in the NFL. Unfortunately for him, that time is over.

So what's next for these two? Two faces of a franchise are let go after a few years of disappointment directly related to injury. I don't know if they were good decisions, but they were business decisions. Westbrook is very questionable with his play time severely affected, but L.T. seems to be over the hump of his. Unfortunately even though he is over his injuries for the most part, the production is just not there, and does not meet the money that he was given. If you get a humongous contract, you have to live up to it in the NFL. Unlike Baseball, Basketball, and Hockey, in the NFL the contracts are not guaranteed money. It's basically just a number that keeps you locked up on the team if they team wants you there. In baseball you can have a bruised buttocks (see Carl Pavano) and still get your huge paycheck. This won't be the last we see of this, and it hasn't been the first time that we saw it. Remember Terrell Owens getting cut by the Cowboys? That wasn't so much because of injuries or money, but it's the NFL and you can get cut without getting paid if there's something that the upper management does not like.

I don't know where these two are going to go, but it may be good for them to have a resurgence elsewhere. A lot of teams would be very happy to have a discounted price on these guys, even if they are backups. The real question is going to be their health and well-being.