Colts retained LB Brackett with five-year deal

The Indianapolis Colts linebacker Gary Brackett has wished that he could finish his NFL career as a Colt, and that may come true- the Colts have offered him a new contract that will keep him in the Colts jersey for the next five years, just a few hours after the 29-year-old linebacker officially became an unrestricted free agent.


“Obviously, this is a great place to play and when you get a chance to stay a Colt for life, you usually jump at it,” Brackett said during a news conference at the team’s complex. “That’s why I wanted to do everything within my power to make this my home.”

According to reports, the five-year contract will offer Brackett a pay $33 million, including a $12 million signing bonus and is likely to make him the team’s highest-paid linebacker in a decade. It’s lucky enough for Brackett to be able to stay with the Colts after becoming unrestricted free agent, and such a big contract is easily taken as the reward for Brackett’s performance during the seven seasons he has spent all only with the Colts.

Colts have rarely made offers to retain unrestricted free agent linebackers. Since the end of the 2002 season, they have allowed four linebackers to leave as unrestricted free agents, including Mike Peterson, Marcus Washington, Cato June and David Thornton.

Colts are worrying about long injury list

Last Sunday’s loss to the New York Jets was really a big strike to the Indianapolis Colts, who practiced Wednesday without as many as fourteen players, including five defensive linemen.


Safety Melvin Bullitt with shoulder injury and wide receiver Pierre Garcon with hand injury practiced but on limited basis. Pro Bowl defensive ends Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis both sat out the practice. Freeney was all right and was just having his normal rest day, but Mathis has already missed last week’s game because of a quadriceps injury, which may also keep him out of this Sunday’s season finale Buffalo Bills.

Other players who did not put on their Colts jerseys to practice included left tackle Charlie Johnson with foot, wide receiver Austin Collie on his rest day, cornerbacks Jerraud Powers and Jacob Lacey and linebacker Clint Session with knee injury.

NFL announced fined players

This week the players who received fines from the NFL include the Arizona Cardinals safety Antrel Rolle, tackle Levi Brown, the Indianapolis Colts cornerback Jacob Lacey, the Carolina Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams, Cleveland Browns linebacker Kaluka Maiava, New York Giants running back Ahmad Bradshaw and safety Michael Johnson.


Cardinals Rolle was fined $7,500 for hitting tight end Kevin Boss of the Giants in last Sunday’s win, and Brown was fined $5,000 for a chop block, the same as the Panthers Williams, who did the chop block in last Sunday’s loss to the Buffalo Bills while picking up a blitz.

Colts Lacey received a fine of $10,000 because he went to the ground to celebrate after a touchdown in a win over St. Louis Rams and the league considered that was unsportsmanlike conduct.

Browns rookie Maiava, Giants Bradshaw and Johnson each was fined $5,000 for unnecessary roughness. Maiava hit Packers receiver Greg Jennings in the game, Bradshaw struke DT in Cardinals jersey named Darnell Dockett in the face mask last Sunday, and Johnson hit Kurt Warner in the head in the same game.

Colts Kicker Vinatieri to be out for 4-8 weeks with knee problem

After having an MRI on right knee last week, the Indianapolis Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri found that he needed to have a surgery to remove a piece of loose cartilage, and after the surgery, he may need four to eight weeks to rehabilitate.


The surgery was operated on Tuesday. And one day later, the Colts signed veteran kicker Matt Stover to replace the league’s best clutch kicker. Since he already had a surgery on his right hip and right knee this summer and managed to make a short field goal in the fourth quarter of Sunday night’s 31-9 win over the Tennessee Titans, it was surprising to know that the kicker underwent another surgery and would be not seen in his Colts jersey for so long. Hopefully he will be back before the season ends.

And it is just reasonable for a team to find a replacement when they lose a starter. What was surprising was that, the team released starting defensive tackle Ed Johnson to clear a roster spot for signing Stover. Johnson was released by the Colts last season after being arrested on a drug possession charge. He re-signed with the Colts in May when the team tried to beef up its undersized defensive line and managed to win his starting job. However, his unsatisfying performance on and off the field caused him to be released by the same team for the second time in the past 13 months.