FanHouse BaltimoreRavens

Face it, people. The only reason you don't want to believe this about the Minnesota Vikings is because of him. And honestly, that's fair. Brett Favre drives everybody crazy all summer with his anguished, will-he-or-won't-he retirement drama. There are and should be consequences for something like that. In this case, the consequence is that you won't let yourself believe the gray-haired Sears pitchman from Mississippi has his hands on the reins of the best team in the NFC.

But I'm sorry to report that Favre and the Vikings don't care what you think, because as of this morning they were 6-0. And regardless of how good the Saints looked against the Giants, Minnesota is the deserving favorite to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.

The NFL season is less than five weeks away, and today FanHouse is at Ravens training camp -- Stop 2 and mile 270 of Dan Graziano's five-camp, 1,100-mile road trip.

WESTMINSTER, Md. -- Pressure? Nerves? Just because Tavares Gooden is expected to take over free-agent defector Bart Scott's spot at Ravens inside linebacker next to Ray Lewis? No way, says Gooden. Running with the first team in practice isn't about pressure or nerves. It's about great big holes to run through.

"You hear noises that make you think you're watching an army movie -- Haloti Ngata crashing into guys and stuff like that," Gooden said Sunday after the Ravens wrapped up their afternoon practice at McDaniel College. "And then you've got those holes and those openings, and you just fill them as a linebacker. I think that's the biggest part of being with the 'ones.' Everybody knows their assignments, and all you have to do is play off that D-line."

OWINGS MILLS, Md. -- Time and time again during the Ravens' OTA on Tuesday, wide receiver Derrick Mason found himself wide open, an easy target for quarterbacks Joe Flacco and Troy Smith to pick out.

It's amazing how easy football can be when no one's allowed to touch you.

Just four months removed from surgery to repair his right shoulder, Mason has been forced to sport a red "no contact" jersey at Baltimore's offseason workouts. He's hopeful that he will be able to shed that apparel and don his pads when the Ravens open training camp in late July, but his recovery may linger later into the summer.

Well, not really, but it felt that way during a two-hour conference call that NFL.com draft guru Mike Mayock held with members of the media this afternoon. I'm pretty sure every NFL writer and every college writer in the country was on the call, and that everyone got to ask a question. Mayock is, I am 100 percent certain, either a computer or the 21st-century version of the robot 2XL (without, of course, the 8-track tapes). Only one time in the entire two hours did he fail to answer a question, and that was because somebody asked about a kicker, and he admitted he didn't really look at kickers in the draft.

Coming off a stellar 2008 season, Baltimore's Jason Brown wanted to be paid as if he was a top NFL center. The Ravens balked at that idea; St. Louis did not. So even though there were rumblings that Brown did not really want to be a Ram, he couldn't turn down a whopping five-year, $37.5 million contract when St. Louis put it on the table.

According to ESPN's John Clayton, Baltimore topped out its offer to Brown at about $6 million a year -- a number that St. Louis flew past. Of Brown's new contract, $20 million will be guaranteed.

Round and round we go ... but it looks like the Bart Scott saga has finally reached its conclusion. Early on Thursday, several reports came out claiming that Scott had signed with the New York Jets, only to be debunked by rumors that Baltimore was making a final push at keeping Scott a Raven.

Now it looks like Scott is definitely headed for New York, reportedly courtesy of a six-year, $48 million dollar contract with the Jets. That deal adds a year and an extra $8 million onto the original agreement Scott supposedly accepted.

When Rick Hendrick started his racing team, NASCAR wasn't there to nudge and give anything he needed to be successful. The same goes for Jack Roush, Ray Evernham, Robert Yates, and fill-in-the-blank-here-with-a-NASCAR-owner.

So what, Ray Lewis, made you feel so entitled that you can blame your failure to produce a racing team on NASCAR?

Lewis, a linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens, told FOX Sports Radio all about his terrible misfortunes.

"Well, whatever policy they have, we hit a lot of walls. Because it takes huge sponsorships, it takes huge commitment, from so many different people in the NASCAR world who actually put so much into the NASCAR world."

Really? NASCAR isn't easy to get into? Wow, thanks Ray. Next time I think about turning my weekly paycheck into a NASCAR Nextel Cup team, I'll think twice. I mean, my checks look really similar to yours that are part of a seven-year, $50 million deal.

Just move the decimal like three spots to the left.

Apparently, Lewis thinks that NASCAR has this silver plate of car parts, garage space, and a Fortune 500 company waiting for anyone who wants to race. Someone must have told Ray that NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program just gives that away. He must be used to a silver plate, especially remembering how he got himself out of murder charges in 2000, and avoided the civil lawsuit by paying off one of the victim's family.

"So whatever program they have in place, it might be in place, but it definitely did not help us through the process that we were trying to go through."

I'm not going to deny that Ray might not have gotten the most help. I have a feeling, though, that Lewis just simply realized that NASCAR isn't all about watching your car go around in circles while sitting in suite eating shrimp cocktail. It's a cutthroat sport, and ownership isn't easy -- just like the sport that Lewis plays in.

NASCAR bids you adieu, Mr. Lewis. And good luck with the quagmire that is open-wheel racing.

I was blown away to see that the Ravens gave up three draft picks, including two third-rounders, to Buffalo for Willis McGahee. It's nothing against McGahee, he's an okay running back. It seems to me, though, that running backs are the most easily-replaced players on the field.

Clinton Portis goes down for the Redskins, Ladell Betts steps right in. Denver gets ridiculous production from their running back position every year, no matter who's back there. Every year, there's a handful of rookies or backups who step in and produce. Guys like Chester Taylor, Ron Dayne, Julius Jones, Travis Henry, Marion Barber ... all averaging over 4 yards a carry.

My point is this: if your team doesn't already have a guy on the roster who can average over 4 yards per carry, then your GM has probably screwed up pretty badly, either at the running back position, or leaving some other glaring deficiency with the offense. And unless it's one of the elite running backs in the league (and there definitely aren't more than two or three of those), it's not worth giving up a ton of money and/or draft picks to get someone else's running back. It's not hot. You can fill that hole somewhere else.

Let's look at the situation for the Browns, who gave a ton of money to Jamal Lewis ... I just wonder, what is Jamal Lewis going to give them that Reuben Droughns couldn't? No, Cleveland couldn't run the ball, but was that Droughns' fault? When Jason Wright or Jerome Harrison got in the game, they couldn't run, either.

Could it be that Cleveland's anemic passing game let other teams sell out on the run, limiting Droughns' room? And Jamal Lewis, in Baltimore, behind a better line and in a more balanced offense, got 3.6 yards per carry. I'm expected to believe that the difference between Droughns' and Lewis is worth any kind of substantial investment?

Cleveland, like any other team who invests a ton of money or draft picks for a running back, could have spent that money better elsewhere.