Derrick Mason

Derrick Mason is a professional football player in the NFL.  He currently plays for the Baltimore Ravens.  Born in 1974, Mason was drafted by the then Tennessee Oilers in 1997 with the 98th overall pick.  This was after he played college ball at Michigan State where he played four years, caught eight touchdown passes and set a school record for kick off return years with 2,384.

Mason was drafted by the Tennessee Oilers/Titans in 1997.  In his rookie season, he played in 16 games and caught 14 passes for 186 yards.  That's not really a lot, but you can't expect much more from a rookie drafted in the fourth round.  His first game came against the Oakland Raiders on August 31.  In his second season, Mason again played all 16 games and scored 3 touchdowns on 25 catches for 333 yards.  His first touchdown was against the Chicago Bears.  He also did work as a punt returning, taking the ball back for 228 yards on 31 returns.  Mason was a member of the Tennessee Titans team that made it to Super Bowl XXXIV against the St. Louis Rams.  Mason caught 2 passes for 18 yards and returned 5 kickoffs for 122 total yards.  However, the Titans would end up losing the game 23-16.  During the 2000 season, Mason led the league in punt return yards with 662 and caught 63 passes for 895 yards.  He also returned 41 kickoffs for 1,132 yards, leading the league in average yards per kickoff.  That year he had 2,659 all-purpose yards which is an NFL record for a single season.  He is also the only Titans player to ever pass 2,000 total yards.  Mason made it to the Pro Bowl twice, once n 2000 and again in 2003.

Mason continued to be a top receiver in the NFL when he signed with the Baltimore Ravens in 2005 as a free agent.  His first season in Baltimore saw him set a franchise record with 86 receptions.  In 2007, Mason caught 103 passes for 1,087 yards and 5 touchdowns, making him the first player in the history of the Ravens to catch 100 passes in a season.

Mason made it as a third alternate for the 2008 Pro Bowl after a year of having 80 catches for 1,037 yards and 5 touchdowns.  This was also the rookie year for Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco.  Mason was the primary target for Flacco, who ended up having a very successful rookie campaign.  Mason caught his 900th reception in 2010 on November 21.  This made him only the 13th receiver in NFL history to reach this milestone.

Mason is married with two children named Derrick James II and Bailee My-Lin.  His wife Marci is the Vice President of "The Derrick Mason Foundation" charity.  One of Derrick Mason's most prized possessions is a pair of boxing gloves worn my Muhammad Ali.  He bought them at an auction for his son Derrick II.

A Joke

In April of 2011, Derrick Mason was interviewed on a radio show where he called NFL commissioner Roger Goodell "a joke" for the commissioner's stance on the subject of human growth hormone testing in the NFL.  A few days after the interview, Mason appeared on ESPN2 wearing a shirt that had the phrase "A JOKE" written on it.  Mason later apologized for the shirt, but not for the comments he had made.  It should be noted that his apology came from Twitter, which is apparently how everyone is making public statements these days.

Mason's original comments were related to his opinion that the commissioner should be less focused on blood tests and HGH and more focused on getting a new collective bargaining agreement in order so that the owners and the players can come to a consensus and a 2011 football season can take place.  Mason felt that the commissioner was not focusing on what is most important at the current time.  The old collective bargaining agreement did not have a policy for HGH testing and the commissioner wants to see that added to the new agreement.  Mason argues that there are other ways to test for illegal substances other than blood tests as they are a little too intrusive.

As far as a new collective bargaining agreement goes, there is still no resolution looming.  Owners and players are going to have more meetings, but it's a matter of who will give in.  If a deal cannot be reached, then there will continue to be no football until the matter is resolved.  This could mean no 2011 NFL season.  So far the only NFL event that will still take place is the 2011 Draft.  Some member of the players association supposedly encouraged college players to boycott the draft.  This would not prove anything.  Not only that, the draft is a big deal (or at least it should be) to those being selected.  That's why they have a big ceremony and the players get to walk up on stage and get that jersey.  Taking that away from kids is just not right, so no player should give in and boycott the draft.  That just hurts the league as a whole since fans really enjoy watching the draft.  They like it so much that it was moved to prime time a couple years ago.

Let's just hope the owners and the players can get this thing resolved so we can make sure there is an actual football season in 2011.