Friday Firings: Kolb's Contract, No Palmer Trade, Pete Rose Bobblehead

Every Friday the HR Department fires two or more things from around sports that range from silly to outrageous. Here's what we came up with this week:

Kolb won't live up to his contract.

Fire Kevin Kolb's New Contract: The Cardinals picked up QB Kevin Kolb via trade this week from the Eagles. This was a good move. The Cardinals then offered Kolb a 5-year contract worth almost $64 million including $21 million guaranteed. This was not a good move. What the Cardinals need is simple: someone who can throw the ball in the vicinity of WR Larry Fitzgerald, which has been an issue since Kurt Warner retired. Kolb can probably do that, but he's just not worth anything close to what the Cardinals offered. He has three wins, four losses, 11 TD passes, a 109.6 passing yards per game average and a passer rating of 73.2 in his career. His numbers are comparable to epic disappointment JaMarcus Russell: seven wins, 18 TD passes, 131.7 yards per game and a 65.2 rating. Kolb is not Russell, but he's not Warner. Kolb was supposed to be the Eagles' starter in 2010 -- he went 2-3 with 7 TDs and was replaced by Michael Vick. Twice. Kolb will be better than anyone the Cardinals had under center last year (by default), but their offer suggests they think way too highly of him.

Fire Mike Brown's Refusal to Trade Carson Palmer: It's pretty clear that Bengals owner Mike Brown is going to call Carson Palmer's bluff and make the frustrated QB retire rather than trade him. Brown said this week: "Carson signed a contract, he made a commitment. He gave us his word. We relied on his word and his commitment. We expected him to perform here. If he is going to walk away from his commitment we aren’t going to reward him for doing it.” That would be a fair point if it weren't a load of hypocritical crap. Like all teams, the Bengals cut players. When a team cuts a player it's ending a contract (or commitment) prematurely, like when they cut WR Antonio Bryant last year before he even played a down with the team. That's business. That's reality. Mike Brown doesn't have any right to claim the high ground here. Palmer is frustrated (rightly) because the Bengals consistently show no commitment to winning or even getting better: After winning the AFC North in 2009, the team finished 4-12 in 2010. Brown is holding onto Palmer out of spite and against the team's best interest, showing once again why he is one of the worst executives in sports.

Fire the Baseball Hall of Fame Selling a Pete Rose Bobblehead: This is just silly but at least it's not a hot seller, having been marked down from $16.99 to $9.99.