The Vikings were never going to draft Barkley themselves – they already have that Christian Ponder fella – but the QB’s decision still has implications for Minnesota. As Peter King just pointed out in a tweet, Barkley’s return to USC raises the draft value of Heisman winner Robert Griffin III. King speculates that some team may prize Griffin enough now to “trade more than is sensible to go up for him.” King lists Seattle, Washington, Miami and Cleveland as teams that might cough up picks to some team above them in the draft so they can nab Griffin. (more…)

Actually, trouble is something Everson already knows all about. In the span of 72 hours last weekend, the former USC Trojan was arrested not once but twice in his old stomping grounds of Los Angeles. The second time he was reportedly tased after assaulting a police officer. That enough trouble for you?

Luckily for Everson, the DA decided not to life felony charges. This left him free to move straight on to his next opportunity to make himself look like an idiot.

If an NFL player is going to make himself look like an idiot, you can bet Facebook or Twitter is involved somewhere. In Everson’s case, Facebook was the culprit. Just days after making everyone doubt his intelligence by getting arrested twice, Griffen confirmed his lack of brains by joking about the incident on the social media site.

“Hello (Facebook) friends, this your guy that went to jail twices in 72 hours,” Griffen posted.

This was bad enough. What came next was mind-boggling.

“However, I’m a free man. On saturday I got out in 8 hours and also Monday. That’s besides the point I want to take you on a vacation of your life time.

“Here is the plan you pay me 100 bucks for room, breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the suites. Buses will be leaving Friday,1st bus leaves @ noon,2nd bus @ 5pm and last bus leaves @ 9pm .full bar on each bus ……you miss the bus, no vegas.”

The proposition may look like no big deal – just another NFL player charging people $100-a-pop to accompany him on a bus trip to where there will be strippers and booze – but you have to consider who it was aimed at: college kids, and specifically, USC football players.

It took USC about five seconds to send out an email warning its players to stay away from Everson’s bus trip, which may or may not be sponsored by the agency First Round Entertainment.

Everson insists that First Round has nothing to do with the bus trip. It’s all Everson just wanting to show people a good time in exchange for a small fee. And really, why should we doubt him? Would a guy like Everson lie to us?

Now that I think about it, I want to take back something I said earlier in this post. At the beginning, when I said Everson might be in some trouble if his NFL career doesn’t work out? I was wrong. As long as there are dimwitted college kids, buses and Las Vegas, he’ll be fine.

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Denver quarterback Jay Cutler isn’t a free agent, and it’s hard to believe the Broncos will part ways with him when they don’t have another option at the position. But even after acquiring Sage Rosenfels from Houston, the Vikings should do everything in their power to find out if they can pry Cutler away from Denver. He’s proven he can run a West Coast offense and would be dynamic in an offense that includes tailback Adrian Peterson and receiver Bernard Berrian.

Cutler’s feelings were so hurt by the Broncos’ machinations that he is reportedly not speaking to them.  Funny thing though:  According to Peter King, the idea of trading Cutler was already brought up earlier this off-season…by Cutler himself.  King says Cutler was upset about offensive coordinator Jim Bates being allowed to leave for USC.  Is it just me or has Jay Cutler officially taken over for Brett Favre as the NFL‘s #1 quarterback drama queen?  And is it merely a coincidence that Bus Cook happens to represent both Cutler and Favre?

How’s this for a wild conspiracy theory?  Brett Favre knows he can’t play anymore because of his bad arm, and therefore will not be able to join the Vikings and exact revenge on the Packers as he desires.  So, he gets his hooks into Cutler via their mutual relationship with Cook, and starts some kind of crazy Svengali routine with the aim of getting Cutler traded to the Vikings…so Cutler can then beat the hell out of the Packers on Favre’s behalf.  Revenge by proxy!

Okay, I admit…the Houshmandzadeh stuff has made me loopy.