National Football League

Last two draft holdouts far, far away from signing

Published Aug. 27, 2009 5:40 p.m. ET

foxsports

OK, raise your hands if you are shocked that Michael Crabtree is holding out.

You're right. It figured. The one player who turned off more than half the league during his NFL Combine visits — diva was the buzzword — dropped from his lofty perch as definitely a top-five player, athletically, to not even being the first wide receiver taken in last April's draft. And, typical of his brashness, Crabtree now wants as much or more money than the Raiders paid Darrius Heyward-Bey, the receiver taken three spots ahead of him by Raiders owner Al Davis.

It's been four weeks now into the holdout process for both Texas Tech's Crabtree and Alabama offensive tackle Andre Smith, who was selected sixth overall by the Cincinnati Bengals. In both situations, there is absolutely nothing that the respective head coaches, Mike Singletary in San Francisco and Marvin Lewis in Cincinnati, can do to resolve the situation, no matter how much they were counting on both players starting this season.
Why is that? Well, holdouts are decided by two things.

1. The owner doesn't care

The owner in the Smith case would be Bengals owner Mike Brown. In stealing a line from a Cincinnati columnist, Brown's team can't win a Super Bowl, so his personal "Super Bowl" is winning the negotiation with his first-round picks. Fifteen years ago, Brown refused to make a deal with first-rounder Ricky Hunley and ended up trading his rights to Denver. Holdouts are a common occurrence in Cincinnati; there have been at least four serious ones this decade.

So Smith figured to be sitting at home putting on pounds for three reasons. One, Brown has his own salary-cap values. Two, the Jets grossly over-paid the sixth slot last season with disappointing pass rusher Vernon Gholston and, three, Smith is represented by Alvin Keels, who is negotiating for just the second time in the first round.