Pulling the trigger

The Travis Henry deal proved one thing to me. The experts may be kicking the Titans' corpse, but the franchise believes it can compete this year. There's no reason to trade for a proven running back, and possibly sign him to an extension, unless the Titans expect to be much better than 2004. It's even sweeter that the Titans 'stole' Henry from the Jaguars, who now say they would have offered a 2006 second-rounder for the former University of Tennessee running back.

Does the signing of one player make the Titans that much better in 2005? Of course not. What it shows is that the front office is willing to do what it takes to get a player that the team needs. Even without an extension, the Titans paid 1.25 million and a third-round pick for security in the running game. With four out of five offensive line starters returning and a healthy McNair, the sky's the limit for the offense this year. Let's not talk about the defense for a minute.

Now the debate is on. It's more of a big deal for fantasy footballers than real footballers. Titans fans just want the best guy to get the ball at the right time. Fantasy footballers want either Chris Brown or Travis Henry to get the majority of the carries. Why is that? Because people who play fantasy football are insane. The ideal situation for fantasy-football freaks would be 32 starting running backs on 32 teams. There would be no third-down backs and no one would steal goal-line carries. Then again, think about how boring that would be. Imagine this tedious football month without talk of Priest Holmes/Larry Johnson, Michael Bennett/Mewelde Moore, and the logjam in Carolina.

The White Sox juggernaut continues. A four-game sweep in Cleveland proves that the division race is all but over. That's one way to erase the painful sweep at home against the As last week. There are rumors that the Sox are talking trade with the Marlins. They're looking at A.J. Burnett, although the trade would have to include Mike Lowell and his big contract. With Buehrle, Garcia, and Garland pitching so well, do the Sox need another starting pitcher? One advantage to getting Burnett is that another team wouldn't get him. It's doubtful that Burnett would be anything other than a second-half rental as he will be a free agent in 2006 and the Sox have free agents of their own to consider.