Getty ImagesO.J. Murdock, a reserve receiver for the Tennessee Titans, was found in his car on Monday morning with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. He was taken to a local hospital and died at 10:43 a.m. He was 25.

Murdock was found at around 8:30 a.m. outside of Middleton High School in Tampa Bay, the high school he attended.

The Titans signed Murdock as an undrafted free agent in 2011, but he didn't see any game action in his rookie season due to an Achilles injury. He spent last season rehabbing with the team.

The Titans released this statement on their website:

"We are shocked and saddened to hear of O.J. Murdock's death this morning. In his brief time here, a number of our players, coaches and staff had grown close to O.J., and this is a difficult time for them. He spent the last year battling back from an Achilles injury as he prepared for this year's training camp. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends as they try to cope with this tragedy."

Murdock had not shown up for either of the first two days of Titans training camp, which opened on July 27. According to CBSSports.com. he'd been excused for those two days for "personal reasons." Head coach Mike Munchak said he thought it was possible that Murdock would arrive at camp on Monday.

As a high schooler, Murdock was a highly-rated prospect and had scholarship offers from Florida, Florida State and Miami. He chose to play at South Carolina for Steve Spurrier.

Getty ImagesI understand if you find that headline a little off-putting. I apologize, but blame Jerry Rice, not me. That's the imagery he chose in making the point that the 49ers should give quarterback Alex Smith more responsibility and freedom to do his thing. Via The Huddle:

"I seriously think they got to take the diaper off this guy and let him play," said Rice on ESPN's 'Audibles.' "Let him be a grown man."

It's a strange metaphor, and to me, even a strange sentiment. Alex Smith is coming off the best season of his career by far — by really far — and it came while he was being a "caretaker" or a "game manager" or whatever you want to call it. That worked for him, and that worked for the 49ers. A record of 13-3 is still pretty good, right?

However you want to characterize Smith's performance last season — caretaking, diaper-wearing, or just solid quarterbacking — I'd just want to see more of it.

The 49ers added Randy Moss and Mario Manningham to the receiving corps in the offseason, too. Add them to Vernon Davis and Michael Crabtree, and why not just adopt an attitude of letting those guys make the plays? What Smith did last year worked. And it will work even better this year, with Moss stretching the field and giving everyone else more room to get open and YAC it up.

Pittsburgh Steelers training camp is open, and Mike Wallace did not show up, via tractor or anything else. He's a restricted free agent, and hasn't gotten the contract offer he'd like from the Steelers, so he's staying home.

Many Steelers fans are concerned about this. Among them is Snoop Dogg, and he shared his message with the Rooney family on the NFL Network on Thursday. The part relating to Mike Wallace is toward the end of the video.

If you can't watch the video, here's Snoop addressing "Rooney" (Art Rooney II, presumably, but I guess when you go by "Snoop," you've long since lost any concern for anyone else's name).

"Hey, Rooney, man. Get y'all thing together. Pay the man. Look, I know he ain't proven, you know, three, four years in the game, but we need him, man. I mean, you tell me somebody else that's gonna do what he do. We need him, man. Get it together. Y'all go 'head and have that conversation, you know, get the apples and oranges together so we can move on."

Apples. Oranges. Together, Rooney.  Apparently, fruit salad can solve this whole thing.

AP

I really wish that Pepper Leach could've been around when Brett Keisel showed up at Steelers training camp Wednesday (this link contains naughty language).

Keisel decided to arrive by way of the gigantic front-loading Kubota tractor you see above. If you're thinking something like, "That must have been terribly inconvenient for anyone else trying to travel on the same roads he was on," you would be absolutely correct. Via Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

[Keisel] said he drove the tractor about 20 miles Wednesday, including up Route 30 into Latrobe. Along the way, he received some strange glances from other drivers.

"It took me maybe an hour," he said. "I got some looks. People were like, 'What is this guy doing?'"

Keisel's got a love of tractors that goes back to his Wyoming childhood. He's got a pal in the area that allows him to use his tractors for … I don't know, whatever Brett Keisel might use a tractor for. Showing up for training camp and annoying motorists, apparently.

That wasn't the only unique thing about Keisel's look, though.

Getty ImagesPresident Obama's health care plan promises to put an emphasis on prevention. The president is being particularly proactive on that front with one American in particular.

When Michael Vick tucks the ball away and scrambles from the pocket, the president wants him to be quick to get himself on the ground to avoid taking a crushing blow. He asked Nnamdi Asomugha to pass that message on to Vick as the two met at a function in Oakland. From Philly.com:

[Obama and Asomugha] spoke afterward about football, according to the Eagles cornerback, and the leader of the free world had some advice for the leader of the Eagles.

"He did," Asomugha said Wednesday after he reported to Lehigh University for the start of training camp. "He told me to tell Vick to slide."

Really?

"Promise," Asomugha said. "We talked about football for about three or four minutes and the one thing that stuck out, 'Tell Vick to slide.' He's a big fan."

It's sound advice. When Vick was injured last year, the Eagles struggled. They had a winning record with him and a losing record without him. When Vick was healthy, the Eagles got an 84.9 passer rating from the quarterback position. When he was on the sidelines, it dropped to 60.8, courtesy of Vince Young. It'll be Mike Kafka in the No. 2 spot this year.

The advice didn't get past Vick, either. He responded via tweet.

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All in all, I'd have to guess that that was one of the more pleasant exchanges Michael Vick has ever had with a government official.

Getty ImagesContinuing with today's theme of Osi Umenyiora pearls of wisdom, this time, he's urging his NFL brethren to be more like the straitlaced, church-going, high-on-life Tim Tebow.

"I know that everybody likes to make fun of Tim Tebow and talk about him, but he sets an outstanding example for people," Umenyiora said. "I think if more people would focus and try to be like him and carry themselves the way he does, I think things would be better."

Tebow, of course, is a devout Christian and behaviorally, as far as anyone knows, walks the straight and narrow. He's never been arrested, never been in trouble, never been anything other than a model citizen and extremely charitable man.

I know who Osi is talking about when he mentions people making fun of Tebow. Maybe it happens in Osi's world, but I think people are more making fun of the Tim Tebow legend, the beloved media creation, incapable of ever doing wrong on a football field or being something other than the perfect human being.

But maybe there are NFL players who do ridicule Tebow. I don't know. If they do, I'd hate to think it was any of the ones who have been arrested recently — the ones at whom Osi pointed his comments.

Getty ImagesRobert Griffin III, the man most recently scheduled to be the Redskins' savior, has a nickname — it's RGIII. You know this. But even though he has a nickname, according to Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora, it doesn't mean he's earned that nickname.

Until he accomplishes something in the NFL (does an ESPY mean nothing to Osi Umenyiora?), Osi says RGIII is just plain ol' Bob Griffin. Here's Osi's breakdown, which he delivered on WFAN on Tuesday. Via the New York Post:

"Who is this RG3 guy you guys keep talking about?'' Umenyiora said. "You talking about Bob Griffin? You guys are giving him a cool nickname already and everything. When he does anything in the NFL we're gonna call him RG3. Right now he's Bob Griffin.''

Griffin responded briefly following the Redskins' practice today.

"One of my coaches at Baylor called me Bob. Nobody really calls me Bob … [Osi] doesn't have to call me RG3 at all.''

For some reason, I find the idea of Robert Griffin III being "Bob Griffin" hilarious. Maybe it's because "RGIII" invokes such an athletic, sleek, new-age image. It fits his skill set, athleticism and promise of a better future. RGIII is this.

"Bob Griffin," on the other hand, is this guy. Or it's this guy. Or it's a guy buying a gigantic bag of chicken feed at the local farm supply store. Bob Griffin is nearly the opposite of RGIII.

I'm not pro- or anti-RGIII as a nickname. It's not the most creative thing in the world, and I feel like we've become too accepting of vanilla, initial-based nicknames. That said, though, it does work. The sports nickname landscape is so barren that I'm happy to have it.

Getty ImagesIs there nothing the Jets won't ask Tim Tebow to do?

He's already the back-up quarterback, and there's been talk of using him as a Wildcat quarterback, a red-zone quarterback and the personal protector on the punting team. On Tuesday, Mike Westhoff, the Jets' special teams coach, got specific about plans to use Tebow on kickoff teams, too.

Via Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News, here's how Westhoff sees Tebow contributing as a return guy:

"There are certain situations where he might be on the field that he could be utilized possibly to block or possibly to field a ball," Westhoff told the Daily News. "If a team squibs it at you or pops it at you, he might be the perfect guy to put in that could make an adjustment. If they kick it deep, he could block. If they squib it or pop it, he could be guy that we'd have with a ball in his hands."

And here's special teams assistant Ben Kotwica talking about Tim Tebow on the kickoff coverage team:

"When he's in coverage, he'll be looking to tackle the returner," Kotwica said. "And from what I've seen, I've got a pretty high degree of confidence that he would be able to do that."

Having Tebow return kicks in that capacity makes sense. He's got slick feet, and obviously has the size and strength to be a fine blocker if that was called for. Having him cover kickoffs, though? I don't see the sense in that.