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Occasionally, players actually retire from the NFL of their own volition. More often than not, though, they are pointed toward the recliner by the job market, or the lack of one, nudged into civilian life on someone else's terms rather than their own. You think Hines Ward and LaDainian Tomlinson, arguably the two highest profile league veterans to announce their departures from the NFL in recent months, would have chosen wing-tips over football cleats if some franchise had offered either of them a legitimate opportunity to play in 2012, along with a contract worth more than the veteran minimum base salary? OK, maybe Ward and Tomlinson said all of the right things at their exit press conferences. It's hard to believe, though, the competitive fires just went out of either man, like some flickering pilot light. Instead, it was extinguished by the indifference demonstrated both of them. Ward and Tomlinson might walk into the Hall of Fame someday, but no NFL franchise was willing to grant them a chance to run out onto the field anymore. Guys like Matt Light, who'd essentially had enough after 11 seasons of pounding heads, much of the time spent quietly battling Crohn's Disease, are few and far between. Likewise, offensive lineman Jacob Bell, who walked away at just 31 years of age because of his fear of concussions, is a rare example. Injuries play some role in many retirement decisions, but inertia in the market is a much bigger reason. With roughly four weeks to go until training camps open at the end of the month, Tomlinson and Ward figure to be joined by several others in retirement. Some of them, for sure, are in their football dotage. Others are simply in decline. But the more appropriate "D"-word is disinterest. For the players with contracts, the anticipation has begun toward the start of the serious work for the 2012 season. For the guys without deals, the "60 Second"-style ticking in the background is likely the countdown to the end of their careers. And it is, some unemployed players and desperate agents have suggested in recent weeks, a faint but frightful noise. "A guy plays eight, nine, 10 years, whatever, it's hard to walk away," acknowledged one high profile agent who just recently located a one-year, minimum salary deal for a player, but who still has a few veterans hoping to catch on somewhere. "And it's almost as hard to tell them there's nothing out there. The toughest noise right now is the noise of the phone not ringing." Most league coaches and front office executives are on vacation, satisfied with their camp rosters, and unlikely to make changes. Unless they can be reached at the beach or on the golf course, they aren't thinking much about football. And thinking even less about the remnant subset of free agents. By unofficial count, there are still 136 of the original unrestricted free agents from the 2012 class still without contracts, and that's not counting the "vested" veterans who were released since the start of free agency. Given the volume of free agent deals in the spring, it's hard to believe there are that many idle players, but there are. Counting both groups, 26 former first-round draft picks are looking for work. Once coveted players such as Plaxico Burress, Cadillac Williams, Roy Williams and Jeremy Shockey don't have jobs. More than two dozen players who each started 10 or more games in 2011 remain unsigned. There are a few players whose agents suggest, as Pat Dye did last week when referencing linebacker Keith Brooking, are seeking the "right situation." That's typically code for a lack of action. But there are even more guys looking for any situation that might provide them one more year of a salary that, even at minimum standards, still outdistances what they are likely to earn in the real world. And which delays their retirements. "This is the time of year where, if you've still got a few players looking, you work as hard as at any time of the year," said agent Albert Elias, who is still attempting to find landing spots for a few clients. "You turn over every stone." Unfortunately, the NFL turns over bodies, too. So when the calendar flipped over to July on Sunday, it augured the start of the final weeks of vacation for a lot of players. And it likely signaled the beginning of the end for many others. Len Pasquarelli is a Senior NFL Writer for the Sports Xchange.

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Pasquarelli: "D" word pushing veterans toward retirement

By Janese Silvey

Monday, July 2, 2012

University of Missouri Press employees reported to work as usual this morning, even though the phase-out of the university system's publishing house officially started yesterday.

It's unclear when the press office will actually close. UM System spokeswoman Jennifer Hollingshead said there is no timeline, even though the system 2013 budget, which no longer includes a $400,000 subsidy for the press, went into effect yesterday.

There were no signs of the office closing shop this morning at the building off LeMone Industrial Boulevard. The titles still in print were on display on a front office bookshelf, and copies of the current catalog were up for grabs at the reception desk. Also on display was a copy of the press's history by former interim UM President Melvin George, written to mark its 50th anniversary four years ago.

Employees declined to come out of their offices to speak with a Tribune reporter. No press employee has left since May, when UM President Tim Wolfe made the announcement that the press would close, interim director Dwight Browne said last week, clarifying misinformation the MU Faculty Council had received.

Reached by phone, Editor-in-Chief Clair Willcox said he and another acquisitions manager at the UM Press expect to be the first to go, although they have not yet received a layoff date. Some employees could remain on the payroll through late fall, he said, because the UM Press is contractually committed to a fall list of books that still must be edited, designed, produced, distributed and marketed.

"We have not been given a timeline in terms of when we will be laid off as individuals or an exact timeline for when the press itself will end," publicity manager Jennifer Gravley said in a phone conversation.

Wolfe has said the Columbia campus is exploring ideas for a new type of press that would be self-supporting. Those involved in the discussions on campus said it is too early to announce details, although the system has suggested student interns would be used.

Ned Stuckey-French is in the English department at Florida State University and is helping to lead efforts to protest the closure. He fears a new model will ignore the need for a professional editorial staff and a marketing department. He also worries any new press would live off proceeds from the existing back list of 2,000 titles the UM Press created over its 54-year history.

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UM Press employees await word on layoffs

U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Peoria, responded Thursday to a June 24 Chicago Tribune article written by veteran reporter Rick Pearson detailing an emerging feud between himself and Gov. Pat Quinn.

According to the article, Quinn's office tried to uninvite Schock from a luncheon honoring Illinois Special Olympians and from a fall transportation planning conference. A Quinn aide also acknowledged concern about having the 18th District representative at the luncheon.

The two were also supposed to appear at an Executive Mansion kickoff, and Quinn's office apparently did what it could to get Schock removed from the program, the article states.

"I haven't had any conversations with the governor's offices, but apparently the sponsors of the events have," Schock said during a conference call. "I will leave it at that."

Schock and Quinn spent the better part of June spatting with each other on MSNBC and Chicago radio, both calling each other's talking points "gibberish."

The early Fourth of July fireworks were set off during a joint June 12 "Morning Joe" segment in which the two engaged in a debate, and political pundits are split on who actually got the upper hand. Some also have called it the first signs of a potential gubernatorial race in two years.

During the MSNBC segment from Chicago, Schock made a gaffe by saying the House had passed a five-year transportation plan (in fact, it hadn't until last week). Quinn said President Barack Obama's auto industry bailout helped Ford expand operations in Illinois.

Schock, on Thursday, reiterated that Quinn's comments were "gibberish," though he says he doesn't "remember the exact interview" in which he made them. The interview occurred on WLS-890 AM, a Chicago radio station.

"I think specifically he was talking about the fact we have the auto bailout to thank for Ford's expansion in Illinois," Schock said on Thursday. "I would call it nonsense. People can call it different things."

Quinn has also hammered Schock recently for the Morning Joe gaffe, calling the congressman's comments "gibberish." (J.S.)

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Word on the Street: Schock, Quinn show emerging rivalry

AP file photo(From left) Rep. Barb Byrum, D-Onondaga, Rep. Lisa Brown, D-West Bloomfield, playwright Eve Ensler and Sen. Rebecca Warren, D-Ann Arbor were part of a performance last month that included Brown and 10 other lawmakers of The Vagina Monologues on the Michigan Statehouse steps in Lansing, Mich. Brown was barred from speaking in the Michigan House because, she says, Republicans objected to her saying vagina during debate on an anti-abortion bill.

NEW YORK Kayt Sukel, an author who writes about neuroscience and sexuality, has given lectures around the country on the issue. And theres one word, she finds, that never fails to make some in her audience squeamish.

Theres just something about the word vagina that startles people I dont know what it is, says Sukel. People sit back a little bit. Sometimes they start giggling. I end up using euphemisms just to make them more comfortable, and more receptive to what I am saying. And we dont seem to have the same problems with the word penis.

In a much different setting, Judy Gold has similar experiences. The popular standup comic and actress, who last year starred in her own successful off-Broadway show, focuses her routines on being gay, Jewish, a New Yorker and a mother. Her audiences presumably know what theyre getting into. Yet she, too, hears gasps in the audience when she says the V-word.

And so neither woman was extremely surprised when they heard about the recent incident in Michigan, where a lawmaker was temporarily barred from speaking in the state legislature after using the word vagina during a debate.

It all began when Lisa Brown, a Democrat, was speaking against a bill requiring doctors to ensure that abortion-seekers havent been coerced into ending their pregnancies. Im flattered youre all concerned about my vagina, Brown said. But no means no. Brown believes she was censured because of the word vagina, though her Republican opponents later said it was the no means no part, which they claimed likened the law to rape. The lawmaker denies she was doing anything of the kind.

But politics aside, many are baffled that even in 2012, the V-word retains shock value much more than its male counterpart even though it is finally beginning to surface regularly in mainstream entertainment, popping up in network TV shows as well as in newly bold references in advertising.

I mean, you can say penis, says Gold. You can say erection, erectile dysfunction, even vaginal probe. But vagina? Suddenly its a dirty word. And its the correct anatomical term!

Can an anatomical term really be a bad word? Even the Parents Television Council, a watchdog group that tracks what it sees as objectionable content on TV, acknowledges that difficulty.

Ive got a toddler, and when you read potty-training books, they discourage the use of euphemisms for body parts, says Melissa Henson, the groups director of communications. But what troubles the PTC, she says, is the use of this language in the context of cheap sex jokes. Its dumbed-down humor thats in no way respectful of the audience.

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Women frustrated that v-word is still largely taboo

The country has been officially known as Myanmar since 1989 when its military rulers decided the name 'Burma' was a legacy of British colonial rule which reflected the domination of its majority Burman tribe. The name Myanmar has deeper and more inclusive history, they said.

But the National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters ignored the change on the grounds that it was imposed by a military junta and continue to use 'Burma.' In a speech on the lawn of her Rangoon villa during her by-election campaign earlier this year, she joked that foreigners should continue to use 'Burma' because 'Myanmar' was too difficult for them to pronounce correctly.

Her repeated use of the old name Burma during her visit to Britain and Norway this month has irked senior government figures who reprimanded her publicly in the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper earlier this week.

A statement by the state Election Commission suggested she was in breach of the country's constitution by using the country's former official name. Daw Suu, as the paper calls refers to her, had sworn allegiance to the constitution when she became a member of parliament following her party's landslide victory in a series of by-elections last April.

"The state shall be known as The Republic of the Union of Myanmar', no one has the right to call (the country) Burma. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi called Myanmar 'Burma' in her speech to the World Economic Forum in Thailand on 1 June, 2012," the statement said, and "again, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi called Myanmar 'Burma' in her speeches during her Europe tour," it added.

Britain, the United States and other Western countries continue to call the country 'Burma' in unofficial statements in support of Aung San Suu Kyi's democracy movement, but there have been growing calls for them to recognise the country's official name now its former military rulers appear to have embraced a fast paced programme of democratic reforms, including political prisoner releases, trade union rights, press freedoms and free and fair elections.

Derek Tonkin, Britain's former ambassador to Thailand and chairman of the Network Myanmar group has suggested Britain and the United States could now recognise the name Myanmar as a concession to acknowledge its progress towards greater democracy. The group, which was formed to campaign for political reform and international engagement with the country, believes the term Myanmar was endorsed in the 2008 referendum on its new constitution, in which 98 per cent voted.

Most countries are waiting for Aung San Suu Kyi to make a statement, but he believes change is now inevitable. "The Australians have started using Myanmar, the Americans have hinted at it, and I suspect Britain will be the last to change. But I think by the end of the year Myanmar will be accepted unless something happens," he said.

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All in a word: Burma's rulers tell Suu Kyi not to call it Burma