PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Sitting in comfortable leather desk chairs in a hotel ballroom, the 2007 class of NFL rookies listened to one message after another about what not to do, what situations to avoid or what bogeyman was hiding behind the next corner waiting to sabotage someone's career.

Finally, as commissioner Roger Goodell stood on the stage Monday morning after talking to the players for about 10 minutes, Washington Redskins rookie quarterback Jordan Palmer asked an innocent yet telling question: "What exactly can we do?"

The simple answer: Think. But in the complex world of the NFL, where instant money meets youth in an environment that mixes sports and corporate life, asking people to think isn't always easy.

"This is about the decisions they are going to have to make and this is a big transition from college," Goodell said Monday, the same day the Chicago Bears released troubled defensive tackle Tank Johnson. "I think we're providing some tools for them, but the big focus

So how would Larry Johnson look in a Philadelphia Eagles uniform? Or maybe New York Giants, Green Bay Packers or New Orleans Saints duds?

Farfetched? Inconceivable?

Hardly.

In fact, for all concerned – particularly the money-seeking Johnson – it might be the perfect solution. On Thursday, Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock reported that the Kansas City Chiefs' star running back is asking for a new contract and is prepared to hold out from training camp to get one.

Fair enough. Johnson can choose whatever path he deems best to get his money. Furthermore, after registering an NFL-record 416 carries last season, even the Chiefs might prefer to give Johnson a few days off from the grind of training camp.

But the really smart move for the Chiefs would be to trade Johnson now while his value is at its peak. Around the NFL, that is. For the Chiefs, Johnson's value is not all that strong.

That's because Johnson is a premier running back on a rebuilding team. After last season, coach

Randy Blacker has a relatively cheap and easy solution for one of Adam "Pacman" Jones' biggest problems.

"Get the stainless steel model, put it in the game room with a couple of mirrors and lights," said Blacker, the inventor of the Lil' Mynx stripper pole. "Keep the homeys in the home and keep it nice and safe. You have total traffic control. It's perfect. And you get to pick and choose your stripper, uh, exotic dancers."

OK, this is a little blunt, but it's time to cut to the chase with Jones, who got his name tossed around the news again on Monday when police asked to question him about a shooting after he and his entourage left an Atlanta strip club at about 4 a.m. that morning.

This isn't the time for sermonizing about Jones and his problems. People have done plenty of that over the past four months since Jones was involved in a fracas at a Las Vegas strip club that left one man paralyzed by a gunshot to the back and two other people also wounded during NBA All-Star Weekend.

Not

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Sometimes even a coach's best intentions go unheeded.

On Wednesday afternoon, the New York Giants may have violated the league's rule barring contact between players during offseason workouts when seven-year veteran center Shaun O'Hara took rookie defensive tackle Jay Alford to the ground during a blocking drill which had grown increasingly rugged until that point.

To most players, it was part of the grind of practice even in the offseason throughout the NFL. To Giants coach Tom Coughlin, it was something he definitely didn't want to see.

"That's an example of when it gets a little out of control and we talked to (O'Hara) about it," Coughlin said Thursday. "You don't want players getting hurt. That's the last thing we want."

Earlier this week, Coughlin and the Giants lost fullback Jim Finn to season-ending shoulder surgery. Finn was placed on injured reserve after re-injuring his shoulder during an offseason workout.

Coughlin's public sentiment has been echoed

If all goes well for quarterback Daunte Culpepper in his grievance against Miami, he might celebrate Independence Day with an additional meaning.

Culpepper’s grievance is scheduled to be heard June 29 in South Florida, NFL Players Association lead attorney Richard Berthelsen said Thursday. An arbitrator will hear the case and is expected to rule in no more than a week, although rulings have often been rendered in less time.

Culpepper and the NFLPA are contending that the Dolphins violated the spirit of his contract by not allowing him to practice in team drills during the team’s mini-camp last weekend. The Dolphins have been trying to trade Culpepper. He has twice told them he wants to be released instead and said he will block any trade.

Jacksonville has expressed the most interest in Culpepper, but the Jaguars are unlikely to trade for Culpepper and his $5.5 million base salary this season. The Jaguars are expected to wait for Culpepper to be released.

Berthelsen compared Culpepper’s

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The new Tom Coughlin, the coach who is supposed to be more open, congenial and warm this season, had an interesting message for his New York Giants this week.

Shut up and play.

OK, the message wasn't quite that abrupt. It wasn't far removed, either.

On Wednesday, as the Giants started a three-day mini-camp, Coughlin was amped to the point of being downright convivial. He addressed a group of about 40 reporters and other assorted media and was even a little light-hearted and self-deprecating.

Of course, that's what the offseason will do for most NFL coaches. With no losses and no games to prepare for, this is the time for joy. So when a reporter grooved a couple of questions to Coughlin about what he expects from his team, Coughlin jumped on them.

"I'm glad you asked me that question," Coughlin said. "Because what we would really like to do – and I've talked to our team about it – is to do our playing on the field and let our playing do our talking for us and not

SAN DIEGO – General manager A.J. Smith moves quickly across the practice field at the San Diego Chargers' facility. After he meets a reporter for an unsolicited conversation, he talks at an enthusiastic pace about a myriad of football subjects, ignoring a half-dozen phone calls over at least 45 minutes.

Smith, who quickly has become one of the league's top talent evaluators, is one happy man. He is in control of a football team for the first time in his career. And while Smith tempers much of what he says about the Chargers by saying that the team really hasn't accomplished much in the NFL's high-level definition of achievement, he is thinking big.

"I want this team to go on a run," Smith said three times over the course of the conversation.

"We have a young group of players here, and we have a lot of guys signed to long-term contracts," Smith said. "So that's what we're hoping."

The Chargers have talent to do just that. In the raw sense of physical gift, there isn't a team as talented

One of the latest trends in NFL contract negotiations could help teams make voluntary offseason workouts mandatory.

NFL Players Association lead attorney Richard Berthelsen said the union has become aware of an increasing trend among players drafted after the first round. Teams are attaching a clause to contracts that requires players to participate in offseason conditioning programs in order for players to achieve contract escalators at the end of their deals.

"It's something we're seeing more of this year," Berthelsen said. "It started to come up last year with smaller amounts of base compensation attached to it. Now the amounts are getting larger, and it's our belief that this is another situation where teams are trying to take away money that players have already earned."

Or as one agent put it: "It's another way that teams are circumventing what's in the collective bargaining agreement. Teams want as much control of their players as they can get, including taking away any choice